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Alpine driver Pierre Gasly has praised the French team for operating at a ‘better level’ in 2024 despite sitting eighth in the Constructors’ Championship.
A slow season for Alpine
Alpine are 16 points off Haas in the Constructors’ Championship and only 11 points clear of the bottom of the table following their performances in the first half of the season.
The French manufacturer’s season has also seen some key figures leave the team, such as Technical Director Matt Harman and Head of Aerodynamics Dirk de Beer.
Meanwhile, more recently, Team Principal Bruno Famin also stepped back from his role and returned to Renault, while his replacement came in the form of Oliver Oakes, the founder of Hitech Grand Prix.
Gasly reasoned the change in direction for the former Renault team as he claimed the team “got to the end of the development” with the 2023 challenger.
As reported by Motorsport.com, Gasly said:
“I think it’s performance-related. Last year the team felt that it got to the end of the development with their car concept.
“As we missed our targets, they’re like, ‘do we want to go for another year where we know we’ll probably be stuck to where we are?’ And they said, we want more than that, so, we’ll try something else.
“Which to me, I think was the right choice. We’re not in Formula 1 to be satisfied with the sixth place in the constructors‘.“
Some positives for Gasly and Alpine
Alpine’s top performance in 2024 has been a ninth-place finish three times, miles from the two podium finishes they secured in 2023 at the Monaco and Dutch Grand Prix.
If the French outfit fails to finish eighth in the Constructors’ standings, it will mark the Enstone-based team’s worst finish since 2016, when they finished ninth under their Renault branding.
However, Gasly still feels the team is heading in the right direction and claims 2025 will see “something good coming out of it.”
“Unfortunately, it didn’t pay out with the directions that you know they took with the car concept we have this year, but nonetheless, I still think the way the team’s operating is at a better level than when I arrived,“ Gasly said.
“So, it’s a matter of bringing that performance onto the car, which is obviously not easy, but I know we’ve got good directions already for next season, which will put us in a better place and with the sort and processes and the people and what they’ve built and kept working, I can feel that there’ll be something good coming out of it.”
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