In his Motor Sport testing analysis yesterday, Lawrence Butcher surmised that this was what had prompted the Alpine shapeshift.
“Clearly the team has chosen to place more cooling capacity along the centreline of the car, allowing for a more compact sidepod, which in turn helps to improve that all-important flow over the floor,” he said.
The bulge has appeared to help rather than hinder the A521 as Esteban Ocon racked up 129 laps on his way to setting 3rd fastest time on the first day of testing.
Fernando Alonso went one better on his return to F1, going 2nd fastest to Daniel Ricciardo this morning.