28-year-old F1 driver not optimistic about 2024 season after pre-season testing

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Alpine driver Pierre Gasly has admitted that testing ahead of the 2024 season in Bahrain didn’t go as well as he had hoped.

After stalling last season and being overtaken by McLaren and Aston Martin in the Constructors’ Championship, Alpine knew they had to go in a different direction with their car this year.

Speaking after the final day of testing, via Motorsport.com, Gasly has shared that patience is going to be required to get things right this year.

Gasly urges patience with Alpine after 2024 testing

Heading into the third year of the current regulations in Formula 1, every team has a better understanding of where their cars need to be heading into this season.

It means that several teams arrived in Bahrain with completely redesigned cars hoping to close the gap to Red Bull.

Unfortunately, Red Bull made some big changes of their own and they appear to have set a new benchmark based on Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez’s performance.

Mercedes made some big alterations that created some intrigue from Adrian Newey, but they don’t look like they’ve matched the RB20.

Another team who have created almost an entirely new car this year is Alpine.

However, Gasly has warned that after testing the car for three days, the 2024 Alpine is still some way off where the team would like it to be.

That’s understandable given the differences to last year, but they can’t afford to wait for upgrades to catch up to their rivals.

Given the steps forward RB and Williams have taken, they may no longer be the midfield outfit on the cusp of the points every weekend.

Alpine is precarious position heading into this season

Speaking about last week’s test, Gasly said: “To be fair I haven’t really focussed on others because there’s been so much going on our side.

“I don’t think we look great. But at the same time, we still have a couple of days to really understand everything we’ve done.

“We’ve put the car upside down, done a lot of tests. So hopefully, some analysis and answers will bring us some more performance. And then, we’ll find out, no one will hide any more next Friday.

“But I think we’ll have to be patient, even if it’s not what we like as drivers, but clearly it might take some time before we really unlock the performance we want from that car.

“It’s not going to be an easy first race,” he said. “We’re not going to start from where we would have liked. But at the same time, we’ve got to give ourselves some time to understand that new car concept that we have.

“The good thing is we’ve identified very clearly what we’ve got to work on as a team. Now, whether we’re able to fix it with car setup or not, for the first few races of the season, time will tell, but for sure there’ll be an aggressive plan of upgrades which we will need to close the gap.”

Difficult start may see Gasly question his Alpine future

Pierre Gasly is out of contract at the end of 2024 and based on Alpine’s performance in testing, he might not be rushing to sign a new contract.

He’s one of several drivers linked with the Audi project when they arrive on the grid in 2026 and the opportunity to lead a new works team may appeal to the Frenchman.

His difficult relationship with teammate Esteban Ocon is well-documented and the team aren’t against splitting them up heading into next year.

That may end up being the best solution for all parties, but after outscoring his fellow countryman last year, he’ll hope he’s higher up the list of potential options when other teams start looking at improving their line-ups for next year.