Alpine’s sporting boss Alan Permane has played down suggestions the Renault-owned team could be buried deep in the midfield when the new era in Formula 1 kicks off in March. Permane explained to Spain’s Marca sports newspaper that Alpine’s drivers did not use DRS in Barcelona, the new fuel is not yet optimised, and other teams also had prominent reliability issues. “I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses, and I’m not saying we’re going to go out there and beat Mercedes and Red Bull, but I think we’re in a decent position,” he insists. “I don’t want to say everything is fine and we are calm. One source, however, told Marca that they had heard rumours that Alpine was running only an early specification of its 2022 engine in Barcelona – with another to now emerge in Bahrain.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•