The Alpine Formula 1 team’s double Q1 elimination in Bahrain didn’t come as a shock to Pierre Gasly, who has backed the side to recover in the medium to long term.
Having hit a development ceiling and regressed to sixth place in the Constructors’ standings last term, Alpine elected to overhaul the design concept with its A524 car.
The Enstone squad admitted at the launch of its latest challenger that it was braced for a sluggish start to the new season as it bids to understand its revised package.
Following a subpar showing in pre-season testing last week, Alpine locked out the back row of the grid for the season-opening race with Esteban Ocon ahead of Gasly.
Although Gasly concedes that Alpine expected to struggle, he contends the team failed to maximise its prospects as a compromised out-lap thwarted his ambitions.
“I think it’s very, very clear where we’re going to make the improvement,” he reflected. “Fortunately, it doesn’t come as a surprise to us that we are lacking performance.
“And then, for the time being, we’ve got to make the best with what we’ve got. So, still a shame, because in that last lap in Q1 I didn’t manage the traffic well, everyone was queuing up, and we were the last car on track, and I ended up pushing flat out on my out lap to make it past the line. So, it feels like we could have potentially get a shot at Q2.
“But in the bigger picture, we’re still far away from where we want to be. And we’ll have to be patient until the upgrades are coming.”
Asked if there was a fixed plan for when those upgrades would arrive on the car, Gasly replied: “Yes, but then I don’t want to go too much into details about that.”
Despite Ocon being a tenth adrift of making the cut for Q2, Gasly points out that Alpine used an extra set of Soft tyres compared to several teams who advanced on one.
“I think others didn’t put two sets of Soft tyres,” he retorted when the compact field spread was pointed out to him. “So you know, you got to compare what’s comparable.
“I think, at the minute, it doesn’t really make sense to compare ourselves with the cars ahead of us and where we want to be because the gap is there.
“We know we’ve got to improve in many areas. I think we know we have solutions that are going to come at some point on that new car.
“But then, we’re not starting from where we would have liked.
“I think on the positive side, I see a lot of positive things going inside the team – you know, mechanics, engineering – going on at the factory. It doesn’t translate onto the track for now. But I know, medium to long term, it will.
“So, it’s all about trying to maximize what we got, which we didn’t do to be fair in that last run of Q1, so there are a few things we got to do better. And then, we’ll keep working, but it’s not gonna be an easy start of the year.”
Aside from missing performance, the Frenchman also explained that he had struggled to discover the ideal balance that he needed on the front end to be comfortable.
“At the minute I just want to get the front that I need inside the car, and get the rotation that I want and, honestly when you’re slow generally it never feels really great,” he explained.
“So I’ve been experimenting every single session, at the minute, trying to find if there is a magic trick that unlocks some potential. For now no, I haven’t found it.
“But then I know the upgrades will bring the balance a bit more together and also a bit more in the direction that I want. So, there’ll be progress.”
Gasly has refuted rumours that Alpine’s car is up to 10 kilograms over the minimum weight limit but accepts that excess bulk has an impact when the margins are slim.
“It’s not as much. It’s not as bad as you mentioned,” he said. “So there is obviously lap time to find a bit everywhere. And, looking at the gaps, there is some work to do.
“Now, but looking at the gaps, everything matters and what you said, you know, two kilos of lap time equals 0.06s, and 0.06s will make a difference.
“And so, it’s… there is some way to gain, there’s some performance to come on the chassis, there will be upgrades.
“It’s not the position we want to be in, but you know, we’re all on the same boat and we’ll try to get the best out of it every single time.”
Amid both Alpine drivers retaining contracts that expire at the end of 2024, Gasly insists that he has complete faith in the team to turn around the marque’s fortunes.
“We have to be patient, because you know, it’s only the first qualifying and we know that car is not providing the potential that we believe there is in that car,” he proclaimed.
“So, for now, you know, it’s… you know, time will tell whether it was the right approach.
“But I trust the guys, I know what they’re finding, we know we got time to find in many different areas, not only like specifically in a specific department.
“So, we will have to be patient and be objective after a couple of races.”
