Alpine “exercised the envelope” with extreme F1 testing set-ups

TV coverage showed the car bottoming heavily at times during the test as it appeared to tend towards bouncing.

However, Harman insisted that was a result of experiments that weren’t necessarily intended to be useful at the Sakhir track specifically, but which could apply to other tracks.

That focus on exploring the car meant that team never ran with the softer Pirelli tyres and low fuel loads, and thus its overall best times didn’t reflect the car’s true…