Without previous announcement, the Alpine F1 Team unveiled yesterday its car for the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship. The livery, however, is only a temporary design which is due to change to its final colours in February, before the first race. 

The Spaniard Fernando Alonso, on his return to the F1 after a two-year absence, and the French Esteban Ocon will be at the wheel of the new racing car, which has also been given a name. 

The predominantly black vehicle has been christened the Alpine A521 and is a tribute to their 1975’s A5000, the first car by the Enstone team to compete in Formula 1. At the rear of the vehicle, three stripes with the colours of the French flag (blue, white and red) break up the black.

The vehicle, which has been the first of the 2021 grid to be unveiled, was launched this Thursday during a ceremony in which the Renault Group also presented its strategic plan. It has been the car, however, that has caught all of the media attention, leaving no one indifferent. 

At the event, the president of the Renault Group, Luca de Meo, spoke about how the Formula 1 division will be the axis of the consortium. In this way, the firm wants to emphasise its commitment with a sports project which has been put in question recently after not obtaining the expected results for too long. 

At a video shown during the virtual launch, the Alpine A521 is seen cruising in the spectacular surroundings of the French Alps, in a clear reference to the brand’s name. As for the aesthetics of the vehicle, the new Alpine CEO, Laurent Rossi, has confirmed that this provisional winter livery will be replaced by the final one in February. 

The head of Alpine design, Antony Villain, on the other hand, has revealed that some of the elements present in the interim livery will remain in the permanent one. Among them, of course, the new name of the French team:

“Bringing a strong and concise identity to Formula 1, as well as Alpine’s comprehensive motorsport program, represents both a challenge and an opportunity.  Our graphic identity is key to position motorsport as the basis of our project. The livery presented today is the first draft of the Alpine F1 team’s new identity,” said Antony Villain, Alpine’s design director. 

“Some of the structural graphic elements will remain on the racing livery while others will change. The ‘oversized’ Alpine A521 emblem in a tricolour graphics system is the first clear-cut symbol of the brand’s identity in motorsport” – continued Villain. The blue, white and red refer to the colours of the French and British flags, which are very important to us” – he concluded -. 

Both the flags represent the headquarters of the brand in the French town of Dieppe and its factory at the British city of Enstone. 

Images of Apine A521: Alpine F1 Team.