After Pierre Gasly’s Steam Engine Simulation, Esteban Ocon Doubles Down on Alpine’s F1 Horrors in Baku: “Not the Best Day”

Remember Thomas the steam engine? How he puffed, pushed, and continued moving? Well, Pierre Gasly became the F1’s own steam engine during practice on Friday by doing exactly that. Gasly wasn’t too happy about his A523 steam simulation and expressed his concerns. As Alpine debriefs after a horrific day of work, Esteban Ocon added to what his teammate expressed, suggesting how the day was one that the team would like to forget and move on. What did Esteban Ocon add to Pierre Gasly’s already miserable comments about Alpine?

Alpine was looking forward to the Friday sessions in Azerbaijan after the lows of the Australian GP. The practice and qualifying were, however, sessions Alpine would want to forget. Both Alpines faced reliability issues in practice with Pierre Gasly’s car set on fire. Gasly’s A523’s rear started smoking, yet he continued and then the fire burst out from the rear of the car. The Mechanic did a great job at rebuilding his car for the qualifying but the Frenchman totaled the car again by crashing in Q1.

The team brought many new upgrades for the event, including a new floor, rear wing, front wind, and tweaks to the rear suspension. Despite the upgrades, Esteban Ocon suggests that it’s a day that the team would like to forget. Ocon explained how he had reliability problems during the practice and how the qualifying panned out because of the Red flags. He further added some track-specific weaknesses suggesting the A523 jumps a lot on the bumpy Baku street circuit.

According to Autohebdo.fr, Esteban Ocon said, “It’s not the best day, it’s clear. We had some reliability problems during the EL1s that prevented us from driving as much as we wanted. On the qualification, it was not bad in Q1 but our tour was not validated because of the red flag. So we were trying to complete a time as quickly as possible and we didn’t have the best performance there.”

Talking about the bumpy nature of Baku and the struggles on A523, Ocon added, “In Q2, we are missing this little tenth to move to Q3. It’s quite tight, there are also other cars that are struggling. It’s a little specific to the track. On our side, the car jumps a lot. We are in Closed Park now, we will have to deal with it but it is true that we have some difficulties that we must try to understand.”

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Esteban Ocon’s disappointment is justified as he expected more from the car and the new upgrades. However, Pierre Gasly was inconsolable after his crash in qualifying. Pierre was looking for redemption after the crash at Melbourne but got even more crashes and reliability issues in return. Let’s see what he has to say.

Pierre Gasly opens up about the traumatic Friday sessions at Baku

Summing up the forgettable Friday session, Pierre Gasly expressed his disappointment and frustration. He suggested it was a tough day for everyone on the team. First came the hydraulic issue, which made the rear of the car burn and steam like Thomas the steam engine. The team barely managed to get the car ready for qualifying and then Gasly binned it out of turn 3, crashing into the wall as was carrying more speed than required.

According to Formula1.com, Pierre Gasly said, “Obviously very disappointed. It was a pretty tough day, a pretty tough Friday overall for us as a team. FP1 didn’t go as planned with a hydraulic issue in the first 20 minutes, and the boys did an incredible job to repair the car, literally a minute before the qualifying. And then after it was tricky, with such few laps, and coming into Turn 3, I didn’t brake so late, but didn’t brake hard enough. Thought I could make the corner and unfortunately just understeered, and put it into the wall.”

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What do you make of the terrible Friday that the guys at Alpine had? Will they recover something during the rest of the week?