Alpine faced difficulties in the qualifying session for the Australian Formula 1 GP, with Pierre Gasly finishing 14th and Franco Colapinto 16th, reflecting a start to the season below the French team’s expectations.
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Gasly assessed his individual performance and the car’s behavior: “I think we are all disappointed with the final result today and we certainly expected much more. It has been a challenging weekend so far, with few laps at times, and the car hasn’t been behaving as well as in pre-season testing, so it’s important that we understand why and find improvements quickly. Regarding my laps in the qualifying session, I felt I was on the limit and was satisfied with my speed and application on each fast lap. Of course, we are going through big changes this year in tire preparation and energy management, and there are still many things we need to learn. This is not how we wanted to start the year and there are more cars ahead of us than we would like. We have the race tomorrow, but there are many uncertainties before it. We know the start will be important and I’m focused on doing everything I can tomorrow to improve today’s result and see what we can achieve,” he stated.
Colapinto also commented on the challenges faced: “It wasn’t the easiest day on track today nor the easiest weekend so far, where we had difficulties right from the start. It’s not where we wanted or expected to be after some decent testing sessions in Bahrain. Some of the other teams look stronger than we thought and have taken a step up. There is a lot of work going on behind the scenes, both at the track and at the factory, and we have already made positive progress from where we started the weekend on Friday. This generation of cars and regulations are totally new and there is still a lot to learn and understand at every track we visit. It seems we are a bit down everywhere compared to the others, but we have a good idea of where to prioritize and improve. We won’t give up and I think we can move forward in the race tomorrow, where there should be opportunities to overtake, and it has also already shown to be a race where you just need to survive until the checkered flag to receive a reward. So, we’re going to try to focus on getting a good launch and staying in the mix,” said the Argentine driver.
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Team principal Steve Nielsen highlighted the need to adapt to the new car and regulations: “Clearly, it’s not the start of the season we wanted or expected with both cars going out in Q2. We faced some challenges this weekend as we continue to adapt to the new car and fully understand how to maximize this specific set of regulations to the fullest. Pierre was a few tenths away from reaching Q3 after a reasonable lap, which was far from being maximized in terms of tire preparation and energy use, so certainly some things and tricks for us to learn next time. Franco was a bit further back after failing to complete a fully clean lap, despite showing promising pace early on. This is only the first race of this new era of regulations and we will certainly analyze and implement many ideas going forward. Tomorrow we will be in the hunt for points, given how uncertain some elements of racing can be with new tactics and skills for drivers and teams to use. I hope we fight well tomorrow and we’ll see where that leaves us at the checkered flag,” he added.
With this realistic assessment, Alpine seeks to adjust strategies and maximize its performance in the season-opening race, maintaining hope for recovery and points.
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