Formula 1 Bahrain GP
Alpine "doesn't know true pace" after troubled Bahrain F1 weekend
Otmar Szafnauer says his Alpine team still doesn't know how competitive its 2023 Formula 1 car is after both drivers saw their Bahrain Grand Prix weekends derailed.
Filip Cleeren Jonathan Noble
Edited: Mar 12, 2023, 2:26 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Alpine's form was one of the main question marks after pre-season testing, in which it didn't set fast times on Pirelli's softest compounds.
But the race weekend revealed only a glimpse about Alpine's true place in the pecking order as both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly ran into issues.
Ocon qualified ninth but then faced three time penalties in the race before he retired.
Gasly started last after making a mistake in Q1 on an aggressive set-up, but then he excelled in the race by moving up the order to ninth.
Ocon's qualifying pace and Gasly's race-day comeback both highlighted Alpine's potential, but team principal Szafnauer is still in the dark on what it can achieve when it executes a clean weekend.
"We still don't know its true pace because of some of the operational things that happened in the race," Szafnauer said.
"Esteban had all of his issues that we talked about, Pierre was stuck in 19th for quite some time at the beginning.
"I'm looking at lap times and if you ever watch a race between the guys up front and the guys at the back, [in the same car] you can be two seconds a lap different just because of where you're racing.
"So, I still don't know where we are relative just because we're out of position with one car and the other car had the problems we talked about. I don't think we're far off."
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523, Logan Sargeant, Williams FW45
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Gasly's strong final stint on the soft tyres, in which he almost caught Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas ahead of him, has suggested that Alpine was the fifth-quickest car in Bahrain.
Having been leapfrogged by Aston Martin compared to last year, Szafnauer says its main goal is to "outdevelop" it as it still aims to hang on to fourth.
But even in the short term he's confident the Enstone team will score "plenty of points" just by executing clean weekends.
"I think we were about 16 seconds behind Bottas at that point, and we caught him but couldn't overtake in the end. So I think that stint worked well," Szafnauer said.
"Looking at it from an optimistic standpoint and say if Pierre had started ninth, we would have beaten Bottas for sure.
"How close would we have been to the Mercedes and I think [Lance] Stroll? They were 16 seconds ahead of us, we need to have a look.
"Now we just need to outdevelop them so we can close a gap to those guys we want to beat.
"Esteban being out of position at the start, he'll learn from that. Operationally, we can look forward to having smooth, trouble-free races.
"And if that happens, Pierre qualifies where he can qualify and we've got both of them in the top 10 positions, then I think we'll score plenty of points and then we'll fight for fourth."
Read Also:
- Ferrari will persist with “difficult” single-pillar F1 rear wing
- Mercedes planning "radical changes" for 2023 F1 car
- Video: The top 10 Williams F1 drivers ranked
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article The Aston Martin F1 brake revamp that helped Alonso's Bahrain charge
Next article Alfa Romeo’s mystery F1 2023 launch floor was a total fake
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Filip Cleeren
Sergio Perez signs fresh Cadillac F1 deal until 2029
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mexican GP
Sergio Perez signs fresh Cadillac F1 deal until 2029
Audi F1 power unit division brings back CEO role
Formula 1
Formula 1
Audi F1 power unit division brings back CEO role
More from
Alpine
Franco Colapinto, George Russell to sit out FP1 at F1 Mexico GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
Franco Colapinto, George Russell to sit out FP1 at F1 Mexico GP
“I couldn’t disappear” – Oliver Bearman rues “crazy” penalty for Pierre Gasly clash
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
“I couldn’t disappear” – Oliver Bearman rues “crazy” penalty for Pierre Gasly clash
Latest news
Unwell Kimi Antonelli skips F1 Mexico GP media day
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
1 h
Unwell Kimi Antonelli skips F1 Mexico GP media day
Adding a stage, fuel cell mod all on table to fix superspeedway fuel saving
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
1 h
Adding a stage, fuel cell mod all on table to fix superspeedway fuel saving
Why Daniel Ricciardo would consider a comeback at Le Mans
WEC
WEC WEC 2 h
Why Daniel Ricciardo would consider a comeback at Le Mans
The 10 key moments that defined Sergio Perez's F1 career
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
3 h
The 10 key moments that defined Sergio Perez's F1 career
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe