F1 2023 | Alpine | Caught in the midfield, yearning for more

Photo credits: Alpine Racing

Back in February Alpine entered the new season with one clear aim: get closer to the top teams and consistently fight for podiums.

Starting from the 2021 rebranding that turned Renault into an even Frenchier equipe, the team underwent a lot of changes on track and in the management structure that saw Laurent Rossi take over as CEO and Otmar Szafnauer become Team Principal a year later.

A fil-rouge with Aston Martin that – much to Alpine’s dismay – continued on with Fernando Alonso abruptly announcing last August he was leaving for Silverstone to replace Sebastian Vettel.

A decision that Szafnauer himself learned from the press, while debate was still ongoing over the renwal deal – that Fernando wanted to be two-years-long instead of one.

After finishing the 2022 campaing in a separated-under-the-same-roof situation, the team closed the Championship in fourth place in the Constructor’s standings.

While this year, five races into the season, new-entry Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon have scored a total of 14 points, sharing P6 with McLaren. A mix of point-scoring weekends, missed chances and rather challenging experiences in Melbourne and Baku.

But let’s take a closer look at what turn things took between Enstone and Viry-Châtillon since the launch of the A523.

Alpine’s mixed fortune made its debut at the very first round, at the start of March in Bahrain.

There Gasly dropped out in Q1 in his first qualifying session with the team after a massive struggle with the car he couldn’t quite place, only to climb up to ninth position and score the first points of the season for Alpine.

First as his teammate Esteban Ocon marked the first DNF of the season, retiring from the Grand Prix 6 laps before the end. A disastrous ending to a rather messy season opener for Ocon, that kicked off under an unfortunate star since lights out.

He, in fact, was given a 5s penalty for a starting grid infringement and was forced to go back into the pits twice after a minor collision with Lando Norris’ McLaren on the opening lap damaged the front wing of his A523.

The race seemed doomed enough when he was handed out an additional 10s penalty for an operational error while serving his first penalty – with the mechanics working on his car too soon – but it still wasn’t the end of a rather frustrating Sunday for the Frenchman. Indeed, Ocon closed the day with a third penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Coming from a season like that of 2022 – during which Alpine suffered a total of seven DNFs – reliability was undoubtedly a great point of focus in the development of the new car.

One of the main issues they worked on was, as Executive Director Bruno Famin explained, the water pump. Not a quick fix, as a change of position was required to solve the problem.

“Now with the A523 we have a new water pump in a new place and all the tests we have done on the dyno are ok. We are reasonably confident, we are as confident as it’s possible to be after the dyno,” were the team’s impressions at the end of February.

Reliability, however, suffered a hard hit a little over two months later in Baku, when Gasly’s car caught on fire because of a hydraulic leak. Some troubles for Ocon as well on that very same Friday in Azerbaijan, who was called back into the garage for a potential problem on the rear of his gearbox.

A particularly important Free Practice given that was the only occasion to try out the upgraded floor that had just made its debut on the A523, before official sessions.

Not the safest choice to bring such a significant improvement to a sprint weekend, when time to test it is rather limited.

Despite the team making some changes “on the fly” to try and improve the car – as Szafnauer later explained – Alpine couldn’t come higher than 14th and 15th position at the chequered flag.

A strong position in the midfield, but definately not up to the expectations the team had for itself ahead of the season’s start. A set of up and downs for which Szafnauer believes simulation tools are to blame.

Playing a key role in determining the best possible parameters to set-up the car and get up to speed on racing weekends, the Team Principal believes the ones Alpine can currently dispose of are quite outdated.

That is why – he assured – they have “purchased a brand new state-of-the-art simulator that should be with us in one and a half to two years.”

Born on the same year – less than one-hour drive from eachother – Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon started battling it out on track together from a very young age, karting in Normandy.

A recipe for either a great friendship or a fine rivalry – and it looks like between the two is rather the latter.

“We are never going to be best friends,” Ocon echoed just before the start of the season talking about his new teammate. Nonetheless, so far both drivers seem keen to work together.

Since joining F1 they have crossed paths with significant consequences only twice: on home soil at Paul Ricard in 2018 – where they shared a reprimand after taking eachother out on the opening lap – and this year in Australia.

Of the 14 points of the team, 8 were scored by Gasly who seemed to have no troubles adapting to a new enviroment after a long stint in the Red Bull grounds. He scored points coming back from the back of the grid in Bahrain, took P9 in Saudi Arabia and P8 in Miami, came home only 14th in a difficult weekend in Baku.

The highlight – turned downfall – of the season for him so far was in Melbourne: he kept close to Sainz’s Ferrari, managed to keep behind Stroll’s Aston and had he not ended up in the gravel taking his teammate with him he could have even had a chance to step on the podium.

A more troubled kick off – as we saw earlier – for Esteban Ocon who scored four of the 6 points he has so far in Saudi Arabia. The other 2 in Miami, as he crossed the line in P15 in Azerbaijan – after starting both the sprint and race from the pitlane – and was taken out by mistake at Albert Park.

Alpine was set to bring an upgrade package this weekend to Imola before the race unfortunately had to be cancelled and has others planned for Canada and Silverstone. A chance to take a step forward and this time grab the occasion to finish in the top half of the grid.