Alpine believe sidepod failure was ‘a one-off’

Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer is confident Esteban Ocon’s sidepod failure during Bahrain Grand Prix practice was a one-off.

A little over 10 minutes into the first practice session of the 2022 season, Ocon brought out the red flags when the right sidepod on his Alpine A522 shattered, spreading debris across the start-finish straight.

That was a new upgrade for Alpine for the season-opening race, but following that failure the team refitted Ocon’s car with the old sidepods.

But rather than the upgrade being flawed, Szafnauer suspects it will not be a recurring problem.

RED FLAG

Esteban Ocon loses a big chunk of sidepod

The debris litters the start-finish straight, so the session is paused as clean-up begins#BahrainGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ZHWKqIIZzr

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 18, 2022

Brundle suspects FIA fears legal action over UAE

Max's title the 'karma Red Bull deserved'

Ferrari not expecting protests in Bahrain

Why Red Bull backed down on Mercedes mirror complaints

Montoya applauds Red Bull’s upgrade strategy

Norris thinks McLaren could be racing Haas

‘Eight out of 10’ for Ferrari’s pre-season

Ferrari duo downplay hype but are ‘ready’ to win

Wolff 'very conscious' about Russell v Hamilton

Are the zero-pods behind Mercedes’ troubles

Max says hunter or hunted ‘really doesn’t matter’

“I think it was a one-off,” Szafnauer confirmed, quoted by Motorsport.com.

“We are still trying to figure out the root cause and I don’t know if the sidepod was a bit damaged or if it didn’t have all its fixings. But Fernando [Alonso] ran the same one.

“We just made sure it was all fixed and all taped properly, and it was fine. So I think it’s a one-off. But it’s still nice to always, always find the root cause. And once you know that,