Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly did not score any points in the race for the United States Grand Prix, explaining that the performance was not good enough in the end. However, both agree that the car is getting quicker, as the qualifying pace in Austin proved.
For Alpine, the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas went pretty decent. In sprint qualifying and sprint, both drivers were not high up but recovered well for qualifying. Ocon was knocked out in Q2, finishing in 13th, while Gasly ended up in Q3 with a P7 finish. On Sunday, both were elevated up by one position, as Mercedes’ George Russell started from the pitlane following his crash in qualifying. Gasly and Ocon took the chequered flag in P12 and P18.
The 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner was left to rue boxing early to try and cover Kevin Magnussen as he ran a solid P6 in the opening stint. A 6.9s stop was very costly, and coming out in a pile of traffic that he could not clear quickly harmed him even more as Hülkenberg, Lawson, Colapinto and Magnussen all finished ahead.
“About today, I just think it wasn’t good enough,” Gasly said after the race. “We haven’t executed the race in the best way. We took a good start. I was in P6 managing the tyre where everything was looking good, and us, obviously, played their cars. They had two cars.
“They decided to put the pressure with one, and we just fell for it and reacted when the tyre, the medium, was the better compound for the race, at least for us. We reacted to it, slow pit stop, lost four or five seconds in the pit, exited in the traffic, and just struggled massively on the hard.
“It just felt like we’ve left too much time on the table today, and it wasn’t a well-executed race from our side. Obviously, quite frustrating after putting ourselves in a strong position yesterday.”
Despite the difficult result, the Frenchman sees the positives of the weekend. However, he admits that its frustrating to see Williams taking the final point from the race.
“At the end today, we didn’t do the best job in the race and still finished P12, not too far from P10,” he says. “It clearly gives us hopes that if we execute a stronger race in the last five, we might have one or two occasions to fight for that last point.
“Obviously, it’s frustrating as a team when you see Williams get that last point. I do feel with different decisions we could have been there, but that’s Formula 1. There are clearly some improvements overall for next year. It’s important to see that what we’re doing is paying off in terms of overall competitiveness.”
Ocon explained that he did not understand why he was ordered to take the fastest lap. Alpine decided to pit him a few laps before race finish and mounted on a set of soft tyres. On lap 53, Ocon managed to take the fastest lap away from Williams’ Franco Colapinto, who was running in 10th place.
“Normally, P10 never has the fastest lap. It has never happened. That’s why I questioned completely because I didn’t see the point, but I got it now. It’s a battle for everything in the end and the point is a top ten finish, so [the fastest lap] is very important. I’m sorry to [Colapinto] because he deserved it, to be fair, but yes, that’s how it is.”
The 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix race winner’s day was hurt as Alex Albon spun him around at turn 1, leaving him with damage.
“Honestly, I don’t know because I didn’t review the images. The race got compromised, unfortunately, from that.
“We managed to recover a few positions, two or three.”
He agrees with his teammate that the package performed well in qualifying and that the car goes into the right direction, as the gains are visible on the teams’ data.
Ocon did not run it in Austin as only one was available.
“I think the package really came alive in qualifying yesterday and really goes in the right direction. We see the gains on data. It is very clear. There are still things that we can optimise, of course, but it is clearly better than the current car that I have now.
“That is obviously a positive for the rest of the year, and I hope that we can use it at our best for the end of the year. From there, at the moment, we just finished the race, so let’s see.”
Gasly received a 5-second time penalty for pushing Williams driver Alex Albon off track during the race. He is not agreeing with the decision of the stewards but says that he accepts it, adding that they will talk about it soon: “I don’t agree with it. I accept it, and that’s the FIA. At the end, they always have the last word, but I’m sure we’re going to talk about it.
“To me, I’m side by side with Alex. At the apex, I expect him to at least leave me 20 centimetres of racetrack, so I can leave my inside wheel on the line, but if he goes on the line, the best I can do is be on the kerb. I tried the best I could to stay on track, hoping he was going to leave me some room, but then I’d rather avoid a contact. There was just no space for me there.
“I didn’t review the images. The race got compromised, unfortunately, from that.”
With Alpine not scoring a single point at the US Grand Prix, the team remains ninth in the constructors’ standings with 13 points. They are four points behind Williams. The only team to score yet is Sauber. For the upcoming weekend, Formula 1 arrives at the Mexican Grand Prix for round 20 of the 2024 season.
