Alpine continue to be nowhere close to their expected goals for this season. As a usual midfield contender, the team sit all the way down in 9th in the Constuctors’ Championship.
To add, the team has also gone through multiple off-track changes, such as a change in the Team Principal role once again, and the announcement they will become a customer engine team from 2026.
However, according to Oliver Oakes, there is still work to be done to salvage this season. While the results have been less than stellar, he has given credit to his drivers, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, for their hard work.
He also says that the upgrade process has been out of sync with their initial plans, and a performance upgrade could be in the cards for the final triple-headers to come.
“I think to be fair they’re both, from my point of view, good to work with, massively professional — there’s never any concerns over them being motivated.
“Obviously, they get frustrated, as I would. You don’t want to be cruising around on Sunday with nothing to fight for.
“We know between now and the end of the year we have got some performance coming. I think what surprised us a bit was after Spa and Zandvoort, you hope you can survive, this run of races was sort of what you had but I think actually what you’re seeing, we’re a little bit out of sync.
“We were late bringing what we brought from some of the beginning of the season and then you end up a bit out of sync when others have brought stuff. I hope between now and the end of the year we can at least show we’ve got some performance to come.
“I think we’ve just got to actually see when we bring it how it performs. I don’t think it’s as simple as you know a number from what you’re hoping to bring. At the end of the day, it’s also got to translate to the track.”
That being said, the battle in the midfield remains very tight, and it’s up to Alpine to take advantage of any opportunities that might come before 2024 ends.
In Zandvoort, Canada and Spain, they had a fast car and took advantage of it by scoring points at each track.
An interesting point Oakes provided was how the teammate battles consistently swing this year at most teams.
“I do think it is quite tight in that battle in the middle there and you see it swing, so it’s quite interesting that one weekend to the next, even between drivers at the front actually in the same car and the same teams, it’s quite interesting as a neutral just seeing how much that does swing track to track and also, I dare say, in the battles we’re having.”
The 10 points scored by Williams in Baku last month moved them ahead and three clear of Alpine in the fight for P8 in the Constructors’ Championship.
While Oakes says they will try to get the position back from the Grove-based team, his focus on improving things inside the Alpine garage as their performance level is not acceptable right now.
“I kind of don’t want to say it is a big battle, because you’re at the back of the grid.
“But I think at the end of the day, I dare say, we’re on the back foot of that battle after Baku. And definitely the target is to try and keep that going until Abu Dhabi and hopefully get it back.
“But also, yeah, it’s not really the battle you want to be focused on. At the end of the day, we need to focus on ourselves.
“And we’re not good enough at the moment.”
