Laurent Rossi: “Ferrari is pulling away in terms of performance”
On the second day of testing in Bahrain, Laurent Rossi, the boss of Alpine, reflected on his team's work since Barcelona and reassured everyone. He also notes that Ferrari is standing out from the other teams.
The boss of Alpine, Laurent Rossi, spoke to Canal+ about the French team’s season start. The successor of Cyril Abiteboul is confident about the future and is satisfied with the work done. Esteban Ocon set the fastest time of the morning in his A522.
Today, we managed to complete our program. That’s good because yesterday we experienced some rookie mistakes. We have a new car like everyone else, but we also received a new engine, so we have more steps to take. Ocon’s first place this morning? We shouldn’t read the results too quickly, like last week in Barcelona when we were at the bottom of the timesheet. It’s good that it validates the performance, but let’s not get carried away, we don’t know how the others managed their tests. We are consistent, and that’s the most important thing.
Laurent Rossi also spoke about the new engine that equips Alpine’s cars this season. It is a completely new engine, entirely different from last year’s. We worked a lot on compactness, especially with the turbo, so that it doesn’t protrude on one side of the engine. The power unit is placed closer to the car’s center of gravity, making it more maneuverable and giving it better aerodynamics. It is lighter, it is a radically different engine that offers us greater performance potential.
« We still have a lot of work to do, it is important that we can continue to string together laps. We may encounter problems like yesterday or the last day of testing in Barcelona, but that’s the case for all teams. We are becoming consistent and that’s the most important thing before the first race,” said the Frenchman.
Laurent Rossi obviously takes into account his competitors and their aerodynamic choices, while singling out a favorite. « There is a lot of diversity, as expected, but maybe not as much as I thought. There are many different concepts. I have the impression that there is not one that stands out particularly from the others in terms of performance, except Ferrari, which consistently seems to be ahead of the times. »
Great expectations for Alpine, who will have to prove its abilities in the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend.
