Esteban Ocon & Pierre Gasly Dejected as Alpine Still on “Back Foot” for Bahrain Despite Big Team Changes

Alpine took over Renault and exceeded expectations in 2022. Coming in 4th that year, it looked like the team was ready to escape the midfield and compete with Mercedes and Ferrari. But in 2023, that did not work out that well as the team finished 6th. Both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were quite unhappy, after which some major changes were needed.

Otmar Szafnauer was fired from the team and the drivers took things into their hands to propel Alpine forward. But that was to no avail. Alpine showcased the A524 during pre-season testing, and it looks like they are in for another difficult year.

Alpine is unable to give the drivers a competitive car

The A524 has been called one of the slowest cars during the pre-season testing. It has become a challenging situation for Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. Ocon explained the situation the team is in and said, “It’s difficult to gauge the pecking order after such a short testing schedule, with teams running different programmes and fuel loads.”

He further stated, “We just focused on ourselves and gathered as much data as possible. The same also applies for this weekend in Bahrain.” This highlights that the team’s plan is not to dominate the early races, but instead gather data from the start of the season to improve with time. While this sounds like a simple and sweet plan, there are points at stake.

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Acknowledging the difficult situation, Ocon said, “We know we’re entering this season slightly on the back foot with the new car concept and the team is working incredibly hard to bring more performance to the car in the coming races.” However, the 27-year-old driver was not the only one to share his thoughts on the A524. Pierre Gasly had similar things to say about the strategy after the pre-testing season.

Everyone is in line at Alpine

Pierre Gasly decided to break out of being a Red Bull B team driver and moved to Alpine to get a competitive car. Although the new team started off strong, it quickly started to lose its edge. With the way the drivers are looking at it, the A524 is not ready to race for podiums, but will it be good enough for points?

According to Race Fans, after the pre-season testing, Pierre Gasly spoke about how the team is focusing on themselves and has conducted many tests on the car. Acknowledging that the car will take some time to unlock its performance, he explained that it’s a new concept and needs more testing before it can race the cars from the top 3 teams.

When asked about his opinion on the A524, he said, “I’m remaining realistic. I know it will not be an easy start for us but what is most important is to keep identifying the key areas of work and to learn and progress.” With this, it’s clear that both drivers know where things are going and what the plan of action is.

That being said, do you think the team will recover from the early game to be able to fight for podiums later on in the season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.