Otmar Szafnauer says that Alpine plan to use the four-week break before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix to stock up on spare parts.
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly collided at the final restart of the Australian Grand Prix, with both cars retiring after sustaining heavy damage.
The incident places a greater strain on the team with their supply of spare parts, but Szafnauer has said that there is now a “huge effort” ongoing to stockpile spares ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of the month.
The Australian Grand Prix was due to be followed by a return to China with the race pencilled in for April 16.
However, ongoing COVID-19 restrictions in the country meant that an F1 return would not be possible.
The event was cancelled in December, and with F1 not opting replace the event, a four-week gap appeared in the schedule.
“The break wasn’t planned but it is a welcome break from both getting ample car parts, spares as well as when we do bring developments,” Szafnauer said, prior to last Sunday’s race in Melbourne.
“You know there’s a huge effort to make enough of those parts to ensure that you can really push hard – so that definitely helps.
“And also the break allows you to plan further upgrades that you find through your simulation tools, and knowing that the break is there, you plan them a bit differently – but it definitely helps.”
Szafnauer emphasised the importance of a healthy supply of spares for the next race in Baku which hosts the first Sprint event of the season.
“There is more jeopardy because it’s a street race and some of the walls are pretty close,” he said.
“Like I said the nice thing is we’ve got this three-week break to make some spares in order to be prepared for both the sprint race and the race in Baku. Hopefully it’ll all be okay and we won’t suffer in Miami.”
One of Alpine’s most prominent rival, McLaren, has endured a difficult start to the season, but are also planning to bring upgrades to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
However, Szafnauer is confident that the French manufacturer can maintain its advantage.
“We too have a decent-size upgrade coming for Baku and then a little bit more only a week later in Miami, so we continue to push the upgrades out,” he said.
“I mean, the important thing is that they all work when we put them on the car and we have good correlation with our simulation tools.
“We had good correlation last year and if that continues and if we continue to push the upgrades, we’ll take that development fight over the season to the others around us.”
