Alpine claim decision to shift focus to 2022 "very easy"

Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski has claimed the "clean sheet of paper" for 2022 and greater opportunity for a "return on investment" has made it a simple decision on when to shift focus away from the current F1 season.

Ahead of the campaign, team bosses were being asked when development on their 2021 cars would be shelved in order to concentrate on next year's machinery.

While such a question would not cause too much consternation in an ordinary year, with the introduction of the budget cap, attempting to simultaneously develop two cars is understandably problematic.

Budkowski, however, has suggested that for Alpine, the issues are not so severe.

“It’s always a dilemma but this year, in a way it is difficult because it [switching to next year's car] is earlier and it is a bit more to stop developing earlier in the season because we’ve done four races out of 23," said Budkowski.

“On the other hand, when you look at how green the car is for 2022, because we are starting from pretty much a clean sheet of paper, when you put in balance the gains of what we are making on this year’s car versus the development for next year’s car, the actual decision is very easy because the return on investment, development and resources is disproportionate towards next year."

Budkowski, however, conceded the lure of competition in a tightly packed midfield is difficult to ignore, with substantial rewards on offer for climbing a position higher in the standings.

“This being said, that is the rational thinking-ahead approach but when you are at a race and you see that a few hundredths of a second or a tenth of a second gains you a few grid positions – we are all racers," added Budkowski.

"We all want to do the best possible result and we know that you get a bit more performance this year but I think everybody is in the same position.

“We talked about it a few races ago but the people who are fighting for the championship might ask themselves that question a bit harder.

“It doesn’t mean that for us P4, P5 or P6 is the same, obviously we want to finish as high as possible in the championship, but maybe the stakes are a little bit lower.”

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