Ahead of a tricky Sprint weekend at a resurfaced and upgraded Lusail circuit and with a single practice session in which to prepare for the weekend, it’s no surprise that there are fewer upgrades on show at this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix. 

The top five teams in the Constructors’ Championship have opted out of revisions this weekend, but sixth-placed Alpine are still pushing to develop the A523. The Anglo-French team have brought a new floor body to this event featuring a taller diffuser sidewall cutout in the tyre flank area, a change the team says will “bring a small gain in downforce particularly at low rear ride height settings.’ New floors will be available to both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon this weekend. 

At the rear of the car, Alpine have also made changes to the orientation of the geometry of the lower flicks on the rear drum, a revision they say will provide “drag reduction and some downforce increase at low rear ride height settings.” The new arrangement is set to be tested in FP1 on one of the team’s cars.

Finally, Alpine have also brought revised cooling louvres, both to provide more cooling flow to manage PU temperatures in the high heat of Qatar and also as a test for the Mexico bodywork cooling package. 

Over at Alfa Romeo, the Swiss outfit have also focused attention on the rear of the car, bringing a new beam wing and rear wing changes to Lusail. The planes of the beam wing and the lower part of the rear of the rear wing endplates have been redesigned, with both forming “part of the upgrade package introduced over the last couple of events”. The new elements have been created “to work in conjunction with [the package], enhancing the aero flow throughout the bodywork of the car”.

The only other team to bring an update for this race is AlphaTauri. The Faenza squad have brought a new floor edge featuring a modified forward section that reduces “reduce the pressure at the edge of the floor and draws more mass flow between the floor fences, thereby increasing local load on that part of the floor”.

There are no changes at Haas or Williams.  

You can see the full list of changes below as submitted by the teams below, and keep an eye out for the next round of changes as we head to the Americas for a triple-header in two weeks’ time.