Alpine says its aggressive development strategy has not been impacted at all by the team’s calamitous conclusion to Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix.
Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon collided during the chaotic final restart, forcing both to retire, and leaving the pair of A523s with substantial damage.
Alpine had always planned to introduce a development package, including a new floor, for this weekend’s event at the Baku City Circuit, where the A523 will run in its standard blue and pink livery.
It will also introduce minor updates at the following events at Miami and Imola and intends to add new parts to the A523 at most grands prix this year.
“Clearly, we suffered some damage to both cars after the unfortunate incident in Australia at the last race,” said Alpine Technical Director Matt Harman.
“We’ve had to manage the outcome of that carefully and we’ve all pulled together quickly and reacted extremely well over this spring break to recover the situation.
“I’m pleased to say there is no impact on our development plan and strategy, which is thanks to the relentless hard work at both factories. Both cars are well prepared and ready for Baku.
“In the short term, what we have for Baku, Miami and Imola is a reasonable step – though not as significant as some media speculation in recent weeks – and it’s important we keep this aggressive rate of development up if we are to keep moving forwards towards our performance expectations.”
Alpine has scored only eight points from the opening three grands prix – having missed out on a potential haul with its late drama in Australia – and holds sixth in the Constructors’ Championship.
“In terms of the end result from the first three races, we’ve not been quite in line with our expectations,” said Harman.
“The car, in general, has performed well and we’ve closed the performance gap to some of our rivals from last season, while fallen behind to some others.
“Each circuit so far this year has featured different characteristics and we are continuing to learn more about our package each time it’s on track.
“What is important is the fact our development plan is very strong. With the new regulations, we completed a significant amount of learning last year and we know how to extract performance as a result of that.”
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