Two F1 drivers would be ‘hugely disappointed’ with their pace during Bahrain Grand Prix

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Alice Powell has suggested that Alpine drivers Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will be seriously disappointed with the team’s performance in Bahrain.

After qualifying at the back of the grid on Friday evening, they only managed to finish ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant after they both had issues during the race.

Speaking on commentary for BBC Sport, Powell suggested that their pace in Sakhir will be a real concern to the French manufacturer.

Powell says Alpine will be so disappointed after Bahrain GP

The aim for every team over the winter break was to close the gap to Red Bull after an unbelievable 2023.

Unfortunately, Red Bull appear to have maintained their gap over the rest of the field with Max Verstappen finishing a pit stop ahead of Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz.

The Spaniard will be pretty happy to have finished the best of the rest, but crossing the finish line nearly half a minute behind Verstappen doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season.

The Ferrari driver has a lot less to worry about right now than Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

The 28-year-old was heard getting very irritated on the team radio and will be wondering if he made the right call leaving AlphaTauri for last year’s sixth-place team 12 months ago.

Powell has shared that she thinks Alpine will be ‘hugely disappointed’ with their outing in Bahrain.

She commented earlier in the race that it appears as though their car needs ‘lots of work’.

However, it’s hard to see them competing for points any time soon without some ‘big upgrades’.

Alpine with lots of work to do in 2024

Speaking about the teams outside of the top four, Powell said: “Aston Martin running ninth and 10th at the moment so work to be done for them and plenty of work for some of those others down the field.

“Williams I’m sure will be slightly disappointed with where they are at and Alpine, Gasly is 14.9 seconds behind Nico Hulkenberg who had to box earlier on due to a front wing damage so Alpine will be one of those who will be hugely disappointed with their pace.”

It’s likely many within Alpine will agree with Powell that the result is Bahrain was particularly concerning.

For Nico Hulkenberg to crash on the opening lap, pit to change his front wing and finish ahead of both of their drivers is particularly concerning.

Ocon and Gasly are both quick enough drivers to extract any pace they can out of the car if it exists.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case and with both drivers out of contract at the end of the year, if they don’t improve things soon then they might consider their futures with the team.