Alpine has confessed to not yet understanding the genuine pace of its 2023 car after both its drivers suffered compromised weekends in Bahrain.
The Anglo-French side collected two points from the opening race courtesy of Pierre Gasly, but neither he nor his team-mate Esteban Ocon endured a seamless first round.
After a disastrous qualifying session that resigned Gasly to starting right at the back, the Frenchman’s debut with Alpine was mostly spent navigating his way through a slower queue of cars.
Meanwhile, Ocon, having qualified well in ninth, was blighted by problems from the start, becoming the first driver since ex-Enstone turnout Pastor Maldonado in 2015 to accumulate three separate penalties in a single race.
Although signs of potential were shown on both sides of the garage at varying points of the weekend, Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer has said it is waiting for a cleaner weekend to assess where its A523 package sits relative to the competition.
“We still don’t know its true pace because of some of the operational things that happened in the race,” Szafnauer explained.
“Esteban had all of his issues that we talked about, Pierre was stuck in 19th for quite some time at the beginning.
“I’m looking at lap times and if you ever watch a race between the guys up front and the guys at the back, [in the same car] you can be two seconds a lap different just because of where you’re racing.
“So, I still don’t know where we are relative just because we’re out of position with one car and the other car had the problems we talked about. I don’t think we’re far off.”
Gasly took advantage of a late Virtual Safety Car period to make an additional stop for a fresh set of the Soft compound tyre; the decision almost enabled him to snatch a further place from Valtteri Bottas.
The lead Alfa Romeo driver held onto ninth, however, with team-mate Zhou Guanyu being tactically pitted to steal the fastest lap point that Gasly had held.
Nevertheless, Szafnauer was buoyed by Gasly’s comeback drive suggesting Alpine appears to have a faster race car than Alfa Romeo.
“I think we were about 16 seconds behind Bottas at that point, and we caught him but couldn’t overtake in the end. So I think that stint worked well,” he said.
“Looking at it from an optimistic standpoint and say if Pierre had started ninth, we would have beaten Bottas for sure.”
Alpine secured the Renault Group’s highest Constructors’ Championship placing since 2018 last season by edging out McLaren for fourth.
With the team setting out a 100-race plan to get to the front of the F1 field, Alpine had set the target of consolidating its fourth position and reducing the deficit to the top three in 2023.
But the early formbook suggests it has fallen behind Aston Martin, with ex-Alpine driver Fernando Alonso taking the final podium place in Bahrain.
However, Szafnauer, formerly team principal at the Silverstone outfit, believes it can recover to fight for its seasonal target by developing its car quicker than the teams ahead.
“How close would we have been to the Mercedes and I think [Lance] Stroll? They were 16 seconds ahead of us, we need to have a look,” he reflected.
“Now we just need to outdevelop them so we can close a gap to those guys we want to beat.
“Esteban being out of position at the start, he’ll learn from that. Operationally, we can look forward to having smooth, trouble-free races.
“And if that happens, Pierre qualifies where he can qualify and we’ve got both of them in the top 10 positions, then I think we’ll score plenty of points and then we’ll fight for fourth.”
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