The A523 was inconsistent, usually suffering at high-speed and low-downforce tracks. There were good moments, notably in Monaco, where Esteban Ocon started and finished third, while team newcomer Pierre Gasly matched that result in the high attrition Zandvoort race.
However, there were mediocre weekends that saw the cars running outside the top 10, and there were also too many retirements, with contact often playing a role – most unfortunately in Australia, where Gasly and Ocon tangled. Meanwhile, the overall points total fell from 173 to 120.
It was also a year of turmoil off the track. Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi was shuffled sideways, and then over the Spa weekend, it was revealed that team principal Otmar Szafnauer and veteran sporting director Alan Permane had both been ousted. Co-incidentally, at the same time chief technical officer Pat Fry jumped ship to join Williams.
All of that resulted in a reshuffle of responsibilities within the race team, while erstwhile Viry power unit boss Bruno Famin was named interim team principal, a role that now appears to have become more permanent.
On the positive side, in the wake of the changes, Renault CEO Luca de Meo visited Enstone and insisted in a speech to staff that he was fully committed to the Alpine project.
Meanwhile, much-needed factory upgrades were underway both there and at Viry. Things appeared to be gelling at the end of the season.
"The truth is that we're not where we wanted to be, for sure," says Famin. "That's very clear. But I think with the changes we made mid-season we untapped some potential in the people, I think people are much freer to propose things, to improve.
"I think that's especially true on the track side, where immediately I saw a change in the mindset. We promoted for example, [team manager] Rob Cherry and [chief mechanic] Jason Milligan, they are doing a very good job in proposing improvements, in making sure that their guys also propose things.
"I think all this potential was a bit capped until the end of July, and I'm very happy with that. It's true for the garage, it's true also for the track engineering, it's true for the strategy, and we are daring things we were not daring before.
"I'm very happy with that mindset. Of course, the car is still not the one we would like. But we scored more points per race in the second half of the season than in the first one, but we need to keep pushing to develop this momentum."
Famin's focus on people "not daring" is an intriguing one. It's not the first time that a team has related a change of personnel to the suggestion that staff were previously reluctant or afraid to offer ideas.
Expanding on the theme, he says: "I think it seems that you have a tap on everything, nobody was daring. I don't know why, I am not a psychologist; I don't want to enter into detail on that one.
"But what is sure now is that to be performant with such a level of competition you need to use the potential of everybody, and you need to align the planets.
"Then we need to be good in extracting the performance of the car, we need to be good in developing the car, in developing the engine, and even if we don't have the best engine, maybe we don't have the best car, I think we can align the planets altogether to have a good car at the end of the story, and to have good results.
"Of course, it won't be for tomorrow, but the work now is to align the planets. Of course, there is the problem of the potential for improvement in the relations between Viry and Enstone, but to me it's a small part of the project, of the work we need to do."
That's a key task now for Famin. The summer break changes were followed by a busy schedule of races, and obviously his initial focus was on the race team.
Over the winter, he has time to get the factory staff on message in both the UK and France.
"We have a lot of talents, and we need to help them to bring new ideas in developing the car, but also in the way we work. And the idea is to develop the potential of the full team, to develop the potential of the car, and to get a better car and better results."
It's easy to talk about changing the collective mindset, but does it really work?
By way of evidence, Famin relates an interesting case study of how the team reacted to a poor weekend in Monza knowing that a similar high-speed venue in Las Vegas was on the horizon.
"I think we can see one very good example where I have been very pleased is the Vegas result," he says. "Not for the fourth place – okay, we're happy to be fifth in quali and fourth in the race – but by the fact that Monza was very bad, it was a very bad result.
"But we took the time to analyse why, what happened, where have we been wrong there, and immediately to propose new things, because Vegas was quite similar in some points.
"We were at risk in Vegas, if we were not doing things. Immediately the team reacted, proposed some aero evolution, developed it, produced it, and we had it on the car. Just in time, but we had it, and it worked. Before it would have been okay, we are 17 in Monza, we are 17.
"But now we had a very strong reaction and a very positive reaction, and it paid off. The position at the end, the final result is the attitude which was very good. It's an example of things that already changed."
The big question is how long will it take to turn things around at Alpine. Szafnauer was granted 100 races by de Meo before his tenure was cut short, and even prior to that one of his predecessors, Cyril Abiteboul was working to a five-year plan that appeared to get extended.
Famin is adamant that he's not putting any numbers on his ambitions.
"I have no idea of how long it will take, and I don't want to fix a target," he says. "The objective for this winter and for next year will be to develop that attitude, that mindset, changing the culture. And again is not Viry against Enstone, it's the whole thing altogether.
"And to continue and to develop the momentum in order to make a better team, a better company and to be able to develop a better car. And then the result will come. How long it will take, I have no clue."
The two sites have been working together since 1995, apart from a single year in 2015 when Lotus switched to Mercedes power.
Over the years there's been a continuous effort to improve communications between the two sites and remove any sign of blame culture, and it is still ongoing.
"When I arrived in Viry, a bit more than one and half years ago I remember that some guys, not everybody, were telling me we have only one customer team now," he says. "What? It's not a customer team, it's our team, it's our works team!
"And when I arrived in Enstone I was sometimes hearing that with a Mercedes engine we will go faster. Now okay, the Mercedes engine is 15 kilowatts more for sure, but with a Mercedes engine there will be just no project and no Enstone anymore..."
Famin says he worked quickly to put an end to any such "them-and-us" thinking.
"There is a quite complex history, especially between Enstone and the Renault Group, that's the reality," he says. "Sold I don't know how many times, bought I don't know many times!
"And it makes things difficult for sure. But you know, relations between the power unit factory and the chassis factory, you can see it everywhere, it's not specific to the Alpine project.
"I think everybody is convinced now that we are one team, we have one project, and we have one goal."
Famin is adamant that Enstone staff are no longer citing the engine as a weak link.
"I don't hear it anymore," he says. "It's very clear. After I talked to quite a lot of people after Mr de Meo's speech, I can tell you, I'm sure that nobody will mention it anymore, and everybody knows perfectly what we have to do to improve the car.
"And it's not only one thing, it's not the aero, it's not the engine, it's not the tyres. It's so competitive, that you need to be good everywhere and to make things work well all together.
"Everybody knows that, and everybody is focused on that. And the people who are not happy with that, they are going out."
