The Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix once again revealed that Alpine is not knowing how to transform the potential of the A522 into results. Breakdowns and misfortunes ended up leaving the team with zero points.
This past weekend in Imola there have been two teams that have not achieved points: Williams and Alpine. The rest, to a greater or lesser extent, have scored points in a weekend with a sprint format in which there was a double opportunity to do so.
That is why it is not surprising that impatience is beginning to surface in the Anglo-French team, which recently set itself the realistic objective of disturbing Mercedes and after what happened in Italy it has dropped to sixth position in the constructors’ championship.
The new floor of the Alpine A522 works
At least one important novelty released in the car of Fernando Alonso this past weekend in Imola has worked as planned.
We are talking about the new floor that, in addition to representing an aerodynamic evolution, allows a significant reduction in the weight of the car, something that this year is vital.
“I’m looking forward to testing these new performance parts that Fernando had on board this weekend (at Imola),” admits Esteban Ocon, who will have them at the Miami Grand Prix. “Since Free Practice 2, we have enough data to see what it could give us. I think it should be a good profit from what we see ».
“Of course Fernando qualified fifth, that was very good. We had a few more problems in the race, but I think it is still possible to put both cars in the top 10 once we both have this performance improvement,” says the Frenchman.
Things have gone better for Ocon than for Alonso because, although he has not been as fast as the Spaniard, he has enjoyed reliability in the first three rounds of the year.
“I’ve been three times in the points in the first three races. The car has had a bit more or a bit less performance at times, but we were consistent,” recalls Ocon.
However, at Imola the Frenchman suffered his first mechanical failure. “Only at Imola were we less competitive, but I broke the gearbox in qualifying. It was a missed opportunity for us this weekend.”.
Alpine must react now
What Alpine can no longer afford to do is miss out on the opportunities that come their way, as every team on the grid this year has the potential to get into the points. laurent rossi he is aware of this and has encouraged his team to react as soon as possible.
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“We must ensure that this does not happen again this year, as we have much higher potential.. As a team, there are many areas where we need to improve, and we also need to eradicate mistakes quickly if we want to achieve our ambitious goals”, concludes the CEO of Alpine Cars.
After the celebration of the first four races of the year, Alpine is sixth in the constructors’ championship with 22 points. That is, three less than Alfa Romeo, 24 behind McLaren and 55 behind Mercedes.
Source: The Race
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Photos: Alpine F1 Team