Pierre Gasly hailed the massive improvement Alpine has made in 12 months to put him in a position to battle Max Verstappen at the Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Alpine started 2024 at the back of the field, before late-season improvements saw the Anglo-French outfit leap to sixth in the Constructors’ standings.
The team was hotly tipped to front the midfield in 2025, and pre-season testing in Bahrain back in February backed up those claims, but Alpine went scoreless through the first three rounds of the campaign.
Returning to Bahrain for Round 4, Alpine saw an immediate improvement and Gasly sensationally qualified in fifth, promoted one place further up the grid after Andrea Kimi Antonelli was penalised.
Gasly stayed in the mix with F1’s heavy hitters, just losing sixth to Verstappen on the last lap, which caused frustration amid a sensational weekend for the Alpine driver.
“Crossing the line was kind of a mixed feeling, because I absolutely hate losing a position in the last lap, especially after having to work so hard over the last 20 laps, trying to keep Max at bay,” Gasly told select media, including Motorsport Week.
“So yeah, it’s always frustrating, but I think on the other side, once the adrenaline is going to come down a bit, you know, looking back last week, we were not even fighting for the top 10 and Max was winning the race.
“So it just shows how much of a good weekend we’ve had as a team. The car was competitive, the quali was amazing, the race was great, good strategy, good pit stops, and yeah, even with that unlucky timing with the safety car where we lost the position to Lewis [Hamilton] in the end, still a lot of positives to take.”
Alpine has risen from ‘rock-bottom’
Stacked up against the 2024 Bahrain GP, where Gasly finished 18th after qualifying last, last weekend’s action at the Bahrain International Circuit validated Alpine’s extraordinary progress.
“Last year I must say it was kind of like hitting rock bottom, like both cars, 19th and 20th, really far off,” Gasly said.
“I think Max probably lapped us after half race last year, so a very different picture from what we were fighting with him until the last lap.
“I’m very pleased with the effort the team are putting in and just the performance we’re able to extract.
“We know where the current weakness are, we know there is some work to do in the car, like some areas which are not quite clear, like low speed traction and all this stuff are areas that we need to improve, but overall the performance of the car is massively improved and it’s just thanks to all the great work people are doing at the factory.”
After three scoreless rounds and a Bahrain highlight, Gasly hopes the latter can be replicated consistently moving forward.
“The reality is I absolutely have no idea, because we did the winter test here, the car felt really good, I think we definitely had quite high expectations going into the season and unfortunately in Australia and China, In Australia I think we were competitive, but China and Suzuka was a lot more difficult, so I think it’s important for us to understand where the performance came from this weekend and I’m sure we’ll be able to repeat on some other tracks, but hopefully we can just get it more consistent,” he assessed.
Gasly’s six points scored in Bahrain have lifted Alpine off the foot of the Constructors’ standings and provided it with a platform to build from.
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