Gasly justifies Alpine’s new direction
After an already unsatisfactory 2023 season, the French team has unfortunately continued in the same vein, scoring just 11 points since the start of the championship. This is due to an innovative car that still needs to be optimized. Nevertheless, driver Pierre Gasly was keen to defend his team's direction for 2024, believing that something had to change.
The Alpine team is going through a difficult 2024 season, well below expectations. After finishing sixth in the Constructors’ Championship in 2023 with two podiums to their name, the French team had great ambitions for this year. In order to return to the forefront, Alpine made the bold decision to abandon the A523 and develop an entirely new car, the A524, which was presented last February as a result of lessons learned from previous iterations.
A new concept that struggles to convince
This new car was supposed to enable Alpine to make significant progress over the next two seasons, in order to better tackle the new regulations for 2026. However, the reality on the track was very different. The A524 proved to be too heavy, and the performance did not follow. It took until the sixth Grand Prix of the season for Alpine to score its first point, thanks to Esteban Ocon’s tenth place, who will join Haas next year.
With 120 points less than last year at the same time, Alpine is experiencing a clear drop in performance. However, Pierre Gasly supports his team’s technical choices, stating that the team had to try something new after a disappointing 2023 season.
« I think it’s related to performance. Last year, the team felt that they had reached the end of the development with their car concept,” Gasly told Autosport. He added: « As we didn’t meet our goals, they wondered, ‘Do we want to spend another year knowing that we will probably be stuck where we are?’ And they said they wanted more than that, so we’re going to try something else. Which, for me, was the right choice. We are not in Formula 1 to settle for sixth place in the constructors’ championship. »
Despite this risk-taking, Alpine has not managed to improve its performance compared to 2023. With only 11 points scored since the start of the season in Bahrain, even the seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship, held by Haas, seems hardly achievable. Haas already has 16 points more than Alpine, making the situation even more worrying for the Enstone team.
Gasly remains confident about the future
Despite this disappointing season, Gasly remains confident in Alpine’s future. His recent contract renewal with the team for several years shows his faith in the team’s ability to bounce back. “Unfortunately, it did not pay off with the directions they took for the concept of the car we have this year, but nonetheless, I still think that the way the team operates is at a better level than when I arrived,” he explained.
Gasly remains optimistic about Alpine’s ability to solve its problems and come back stronger next year. “So it’s about translating this performance onto the car, which is obviously not easy, but I know that we already have good directions for next season, which will put us in a better position, and with the processes and the people, and what they have built and continue to work on, I feel that there will be something good coming out of it,” he added.
The French driver remains hopeful for the future, believing that Alpine will be able to benefit from the lessons learned this season to start 2025 in a better way. In the meantime, the team will have to solve its various performance issues in order to become competitive again and hope for results that match its ambitions.
