Pierre Gasly has revealed that Alpine elected to conduct “experiments” related to its 2024 Formula 1 car throughout the recent Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend.
Alpine has endured a troublesome campaign that has seen the team slip from fourth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2022 to sixth this year, 153 points behind Aston Martin.
Esteban Ocon divulged earlier this month that he had been driving a model of Alpine’s 2024 challenger in the simulator since September in a bid to address the limitations imposed by the side’s current package.
With stability in the regulations for next season, the Enstone squad opted to trial new parts on its A523 charger in Vegas that will also be used in Abu Dhabi this weekend.
Alpine encountered a trying time during the sole practice session completed at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, with Gasly and team-mate Ocon only 15th and 16th respectively.
“So far it’s been pretty tricky. On my side of the garage, we’re doing some experiments for next year’s car, so we’re trying different set-ups and trying to get some answers and direction for next year,” Gasly said on Friday.
“Interesting, not the most comfortable, but hopefully we can get something out of it.”
Gasly admitted Alpine had compromised its Vegas prospects, but the Frenchman asserted that he was prepared to sacrifice his weekend for a longer-term improvement.
“I think we’re not really looking at this track specifically, so we’re probably compromising a little bit this weekend,” he added.
“But we know it’s for a bigger purpose and mainly for next year. Trying to optimise as much as we can with what we have.”
Alpine Technical Director Matt Harman confirmed Gasly’s disclosure, adding that the updated components were inspired by the marque’s potential direction for next year.
“We [have] got some experiments that we’re going to be trying this weekend,” he told Autosport. “And they’re all around some work we’ve done recently that informed us on a certain direction that we’d like to take.
“We’ve had some components made over the weekend by the factory, which was a great response by the factory, because I wanted to try something particularly different at this event. And I’m excited to see it. You’re not going to see in lap times, but we’re going to see in data.
“And I think it’s another one of those things that will help us with the aerodynamic direction, the sensitivities, the weightings of our aerodynamics on the car, but also some of the mechanical systems at the rear of the car that really do control how these cars can operate through corners, which is important.”
Although Gasly overcame his practice struggles to secure his best-starting berth of the year with fourth, the ex-Red Bull driver slumped to outside of the points places.
Meanwhile, Ocon endured a contrasting weekend, exiting in Q11 before recovering 12 places in Saturday night’s 50-lap encounter to take the chequered flag in fourth.
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