The Alpine Formula 1 team sustained its “best weekend of the year” at the Miami Grand Prix according to Pierre Gasly.
After scoring points in the opening two races, Alpine walked away from the previous two rounds scoreless, leading to CEO Laurent Rossi declaring an immediate improvement was required.
In Australia Gasly took both cars out of the top 10 with a clumsy re-join manoeuvre during a late restart, while the Enstone side’s Baku weekend was instantly hamstrung by reliability problems from the outset.
However, the Anglo-French outfit returned to form in Miami as Gasly qualified an excellent fifth before finishing eighth, with Ocon coming home behind in ninth.
Despite recording the second points of his Alpine stint in the United States, the ex-Red Bull affiliated driver was disappointed that excessive fuel-saving saw him relinquish positions to both Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton late on.
“I think we tried to do the best we could during our race we had a great start, managed to pass P4 and I tried to keep up the pace with Sainz and Alonso in front of me but unfortunately, they were just faster than us today so we tried to do the best we could,” he said.
“Second stint I was running in P6 and with fifteen laps to go I had to do a lot of fuel saving which was a little annoying when you know you have a Ferrari and Mercedes behind catching and closing on you, so I wanted to give everything we could, but at the same time we needed to save the fuel.
“We could see Charles closing lap after lap and unfortunately with four laps to go he managed to pass. One side of it gutted not to get that P6, on the other if we fight one Ferrari and one Mercedes so close to the chequered flag, it really shows we made a big step forward this weekend.”
“Looking at the positive, double points finish for the team and hopefully, we can build up from there and close the gap.”
While Gasly praised the recovery Alpine managed only a week on from a strenuous weekend in Azerbaijan, the Frenchman says the team must ensure its improved competitiveness in Miami provides a springboard for more consistent performances from this point onwards.
“It was our best weekend of the year,” Gasly claimed. “Qualified fifth and finished eighth, I think it was a more traditional weekend but now we’ve got to understand what has happened in Baku and why we lacked so much performance.
“This weekend was a lot better we have got to figure out this package and try to get some consistency over the next few weekends.”
Alpine’s double points haul has elevated it back into fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship above McLaren, who endured a nightmare weekend Stateside.
But Alpine remain a considerable distance away from achieving the objective it set out over the winter of retaining the fourth spot it earned last year and closing down the traditional top three sides in the modern era.
Aston Martin’s shock emergence as a front-runner alongside Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull has propelled the Silverstone-based outfit into second in the standings, with ex-Alpine turnout Fernando Alonso scoring four podiums in five races.
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