Pierre Gasly concedes Alpine ‘too slow’ to react to issue ‘getting bigger’ every race

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Pierre Gasly has now urged Alpine to ‘step up our game’ in the final six rounds of the season as the Enstone crew are currently seeing an issue get ‘bigger every weekend’.

It has been far from the sophomore season that Gasly would have wanted with Alpine. The Frenchman left the Red Bull family for the first time in his Formula 1 career to join the team in 2023. But after scoring 62 points in 22 rounds last year, Gasly only has eight in 18 to date.

Teammate Esteban Ocon has further seen his points tally shrink from 58 in 2023 to only five so far this season after Alpine started 2024 with an overweight car which lacked downforce. And while they started to improve from the Miami Grand Prix, problems continue to persist.

Pierre Gasly fears Alpine’s deficit to their rival Formula 1 teams is increasing

The stretch between the Miami GP in May and July’s Belgian Grand Prix before the summer break saw Alpine score 11 of the team’s 13 points this season. Gasly’s P9 finish in the Dutch Grand Prix yielded the Renault-owned outfit’s only top-10 finish across the last four rounds.

Last time out, Gasly also finished the Singapore Grand Prix in P17 for the 28-year-old’s worst result since ending the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix in P18. Ocon secured P13 on the streets of Marina Bay for his best result since the 28-year-old took two points at Spa in P9.

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In an unsuccessful attempt to help Ocon score points in the Singapore GP, Gasly even thinks Alpine sacrificed his race to support his compatriot’s. But Gasly feels that trying ‘interesting’ strategies will not be enough for Alpine to improve, with only Sauber running a slower car.

“Basically, we are simply too slow and that forces us to try out interesting strategies,” Gasly stated, via quotes by Speedweek. “Three races ago, I was ninth in Zandvoort. After that, we were in no man’s land.

“I think we need to analyse exactly what we have done and what is in our hands. It is clear that we currently have the ninth fastest car. I think only Sauber is behind us and the gap to the guys in front of us is getting bigger every weekend.

“So, we need to step up our game and add a few new parts. And I’m convinced that we have the team and the right people to make the right steps. It’s just that progress is a bit too slow at the moment and the season is coming to an end.”

Alpine have fallen to ninth in the constructors’ championship since the summer break

Alpine went into the summer break on the back of Ocon scoring points in the Belgian Grand Prix with P9 at Spa, where he and Gasly qualified in P10 and P12 respectively. It also offered the team hope of catching RB and Haas in the constructors’ standings in the final 10 rounds.

But while Alpine left Spa sat eighth in the constructors’ standings on 11 points – seven more than Williams but 23 from RB and 16 to Haas – they have slipped to ninth in the four rounds since. Alpine currently have 13 points to Visa Cash App RB on 34, Haas’ 31 and Williams’ 16.

Only Sauber are still yet to score a single point this season, while Williams substitute Franco Colapinto has scored four points – just one fewer than Ocon has scored all year with Alpine. Gasly has also only scored one more point than Oliver Bearman has over his two Grand Prix.