“This season, it is certain that we are below the expectations that had been set”, despite some “very good weekends”, regretted Pierre Gasly for his first season with the Alpine team in Formula 1.
At the dawn of the 16th round of the year contested this weekend in Japan, the same one where last year the French team announced the arrival of the Normand (then AlphaTauri driver) in its ranks, Gasly returned on Alpine’s complicated season, an observation shared by his teammate Esteban Ocon in separate interviews with AFP. “We had good races where we were competitive and where we were able to seize opportunities, and others where we were a little less so, with a few problems,” considered Ocon, less than a week after his retirement. at the Singapore Grand Prix, betrayed by his gearbox even though the Top 10 was promised to him.
For now, if the two French people have each recorded a GP podium this season (Ocon finished 3rd in Monaco, Gasly 3rd in the Netherlands), several of their races have been marred by mechanical problems, but also retirements due to to clashes. The pure performance of the A523 should not be put aside either according to Gasly: “The car can perform well on certain circuits but will be much less so on other, faster circuits. And that cost us this year.”
Seven rounds from the end of the season, Gasly is currently in 10th place in the drivers’ championship, Ocon in 12th place. Among the manufacturers, Alpine is only 6th (out of 10), far from its initial objective of getting closer to the Top 3, after finishing 4th overall last year. So what is this single-seater missing to meet its ambitions? “That’s a good question,” Ocon replied. “Formula 1 is constant work, there are lots of details in lots of different departments. We know we can do better and we are working on it.”
At the end of July, the team announced that it was parting ways with its director Otmar Szafnauer, who paid for the team’s lack of performance. The American was replaced by the Frenchman Bruno Famin, the new interim “main team”. If Ocon assures that today “the atmosphere is good” in the ranks, for Gasly, it is above all a question of adapting to a new team in full restructuring: “At the start of the season, there was already a lot changes, and after six months, we see things changing again.” But rightly so, according to the 27-year-old driver: “We haven’t hidden ourselves since the start of the season, it’s true that there was a lack of results, I think we were all disappointed (. ..), it hasn’t been the best start to the season in terms of car performance, but since the changes I have to say there is definitely a positive momentum.”
On a personal level, Gasly and Ocon, who grew up together with karting in Normandy, have relationships that have become complicated. It is the first time the pair have teamed up at the highest level of the motorsport hierarchy. Everyone remains discreet about their relationship today: “Everything is going very well,” assured Ocon. “We have good complementary feedback and good debates in the meetings.” Same story from his teammate: “There have been no problems whatsoever since the start of the year. We are very professional in our approach because we know that we need to work together to make the team progress, to try to have the best car possible. With, for everyone, the desire to finally fight for victories.