Pierre Gasly is expecting stronger performances from Alpine next year after a ‘challenging’ maiden season with the French outfit.
2023 marked Gasly’s first season away from the Red Bull umbrella having been first drafted into a Formula 1 seat with Toro Rosso towards the back end of the 2017 campaign.
An infamous spell alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull in 2019 saw the Frenchman demoted back to Toro Rosso midway through the campaign where he emerged as an admirable team leader for the Faenza outfit over the following years.
Gasly made the switch to Alpine for 2023 to replace the Aston Martin-bound Fernando Alonso to form an all-French line-up alongside Esteban Ocon.
The Enstone-based squad had high hopes to improve on fourth in the Constructor’s last season, however, a turbulent 2023 campaign saw Alpine resign to sixth overall with a points tally 53 points down on the previous campaign. A total of 120 points is also the team’s worst performance since 2019.
Asked to analyse his maiden campaign at his new stable, Gasly detailed a season of ‘two sides’.
“On one side, it’s been a challenging year because we were clearly not at the pace that we expected as a team,” the 27-year-old said.
“We thought we would be fighting for better positions but, on the other side, I’m very pleased with the way we’ve worked with the team.”
Alpine found itself somewhat in no-man’s-land in the final Constructor’s order trailing Aston Martin by 160 points and almost 100 points clear of seventh-placed Williams.
The Australian Grand Prix proved a notable missed opportunity for the team when Gasly’s fifth-place position after the second red flag was only to be rewarded with a double retirement when the team-mates collided at the first chicane. The side was also hit by consecutive double retirements at the British and Hungarian Grands Prix.
While the A523 lacked the consistency and raw performance to regularly battle towards the front of the field, both Ocon and Gasly were able to steal podiums away from the top teams.
Ocon grabbed third in Monaco, whereas Gasly managed the same in a chaotic Dutch Grand Prix just one round after the team’s dramatic and unexpected senior management cleanout.
“New Year, my first season with Alpine, I came to Bahrain [pre-season testing] not really knowing how the team works, into a new car, and it takes a bit of time before you find your feet inside a new organization,” Gasly continued.
“When I look back, I’m feeling so much better now in the car, in the way we’re working, in the understanding with the guys.
“I’m really pleased with the evolution we have had throughout the whole season, and I’m definitely confident we’ll start with much better foundations from next year onwards.”
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