Following their accident, Otmar Szafnauer does not think it is necessary to “blame” his drivers
At Albert Park, Alpine seemed poised to achieve its best result of the season so far, with both cars well positioned in the points. Unfortunately, both French drivers were eliminated in the third start of this chaotic race.
While Alpine was showing encouraging performance on the Melbourne track, to the point of seeing Pierre Gasly in the top 5, between a Ferrari and an Aston Martin, an incident occurred between the two teammates, forcing both of them to retire.
Interrupted by a third red flag, following Kevin Magnussen’s off-track excursion six laps before the end, the Australian Grand Prix was about to be resumed for two laps, after the drivers had made a third standing start.
Chaos at the restart
To say that this departure was eventful is an understatement, considering the numerous incidents that occurred. While Fernando Alonso managed to continue after being hit by Carlos Sainz, both Alpine cars, on the other hand, finished the race in the wall.
At the start of the race, Pierre Gasly quickly found himself level with Carlos Sainz, but the Normand (Gasly) locked his right front wheel, forcing him to go into the grass. As he was returning to the left side of the track, trying to regain his race rhythm, he drifted towards the right. At the same moment, Esteban Ocon attempted to pass him while following Yuki Tsunoda on the outside, coming out of turn 2, and the two French drivers collided.
“They apologized,” said team director Otmar Szafnauer, “so they believe they played a role.”
« It was just chaos over there; if Pierre hadn’t been wide in turn 1 – but many people did – then I think he would have gone further on the track. »
Esteban followed Tsunoda on the racing line and Pierre didn’t see him, he approached the racing line and collided with him. It’s really unfortunate.
Chaos. Chaos?! 🤯
An absolutely insane race restart in Australia 🙃#AusGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/hjGrjWBixS
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 2, 2023
A race incident
After the race, Otmar Szafnauer made it a point not to assign responsibility for what he believes to be a racing incident.
« It’s unfortunate that they ended up together. I don’t think we should blame either of them, the best thing to do is to learn from it. The chaos is such that quick decisions need to be made. »
« If you look at the dashboard and the replay, Tsunoda overtakes, Esteban [Ocon] tries to follow him. You don’t know what Pierre is going to do and Pierre is just trying to get back on the racing line, it’s not like he’s looking in the rearview mirrors and seeing someone and saying “oh, I’m going to block him”, he looks to the other side, gets on the racing line thinking there’s no one there.»
One thing is for sure, Alpine is losing big in a weekend where the team could really break away for fifth place in the constructors’ championship, finding themselves behind McLaren who had a perfect score.
However, the performance seen in Australia suggests good races in the future for the French team, who will regain their blue and pink livery for the rest of the season starting from the next race in Azerbaijan.
