Pierre Gasly thinks Alpine ‘lack’ in 3 key areas to F1 rivals McLaren and Aston Martin

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Pierre Gasly believes Alpine ‘lack’ in three key areas to Formula 1 rivals McLaren and Aston Martin as the team ‘missed our goals’ on the development of their car in 2023.

This year marked Gasly’s first season in Formula 1 outside of the Red Bull family after joining Alpine. He replaced Fernando Alonso beside Esteban Ocon in Enstone to form an all-French driver line-up. But the 27-year-old only recorded one podium finish with P3 at the Dutch GP.

Ocon also only enjoyed one podium finish in 2023 with a P3 result at the Monaco GP. Alpine further slipped from fourth in the 2022 constructors’ championship to sixth as McLaren and Aston Martin moved ahead. They even ended 2023 with less than half of their rivals’ points.

Alpine slipped backwards after Pierre Gasly joined from AlphaTauri

McLaren secured P4 in the constructors’ championship with 302 points to Aston Martin with 280. Alpine, meanwhile, would only manage 120 as Gasly took 11th in the drivers’ standings with 62 points. Ocon ended the 2023 season one place behind his teammate with 58 points.

Ocon managed 92 points for Alpine in 2022 to end that year eighth in the drivers’ standings. Alonso also scored 81 points last season for P9 in the championship. But the Enstone squad failed to maintain their position as McLaren and Aston Martin won their development race.

Pierre Gasly shares why McLaren and Aston Martin beat Alpine in 2023

Aston Martin started 2023 as Red Bull’s nearest rival with Alonso pedalling the AMR23 to six podiums in the first eight races. McLaren, in contrast, started the year with one of the worst cars. But the team’s first big upgrades at the Austrian GP saw them often threaten Red Bull.

McLaren recorded seven podiums through 14 races with Lando Norris and two from rookie sensation Oscar Piastri after upgrading their MCL60. Piastri also won the Sprint at the Qatar GP from pole. Ocon’s best Sprint result came in Austria in P7 and Gasly’s was P3 in Belgium.

Now, Gasly has opened up on the areas he thinks Alpine ‘lack’ with their A523 compared to McLaren’s MCL60 and Aston Martin’s AMR23. The Rouen native particularly felt the Renault E-Tech RE23 power unit played a part in their plight but failures with development also hurt.

“We lack power, especially when it comes to electrical energy,” Gasly told Auto Motor und Sport. “In terms of aerodynamic development, we missed our goals in further development. We made some good upgrades but it was nothing compared to McLaren, for example.

“Aston Martin got off to a better start to the season than us. We got closer in some races at the end of the season, which shows we improved, but not as much as we would have liked.”