The current Alpine season can be called a failure, and that would not be an exaggeration. If a year ago, after 14 stages, the Renault factory team had 73 points and occupied 6th place in the constructors’ championship, now the picture is completely different: 8th place and only 11 points.
At the same time, the first finish in the top ten was only in the 6th stage of the season, in Miami, where Esteban Ocon took 10th place, but neither he nor Pierre Gasly had managed to get above 9th so far. Although against the background of an extremely unsuccessful start to the year, we can still speak of little progress, and this is partly due to the fact that Alpine is gradually managing to reduce the weight of the car, which was significantly higher than that of its rivals.
But that is not the only case.
“In Miami it turned out that there was something wrong with the differential of my car,” Gasly told Austrian publication Motorsport Magazin. “We then decided to use the settings used in the second half of the Alpine garage, and the car’s behaviour improved noticeably straight away.
Previously we tried to adjust the balance, but some points seemed pointless to me, and I just asked to try the settings that my partner was using. And when we increased noticeably, it became clear that the problem was not even in the difference itself, but in the software.”
In Monaco, Pierre opened the scoring with points, and went on to finish in the top ten for three more races in a row, but then the results started to decline again.
“The balance of the car was not perfect, although it was more stable,” Gasly continued. – The balance still leaves a lot to be desired, we lack a little bit of downforce. This manifests itself in fast corners, which causes the car to slide and ultimately overheat the tyres. You have to pay for this with the fact that the drive wheels hold the track less well when accelerating.
But at least we know exactly what the problems are, and we know how to eliminate them. I think it will not be possible to get rid of them completely before the end of the season, but there will still be some progress.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
