Pierre Gasly is pleased with the impressive comeback from Alpine towards the end of the 2024 F1 season. He adds that the consistency in the final stages of the year helped, as well as the learnings from difficult races like in Baku.
Alpine had a very difficult start to the season as the A524 lacked performance in multiple areas, and the car was overweight. Throughout the year, there have been couple of changes within the team. That includes a reshuffle in the personnel and the development of the car.
Ultimately, all these changes helped Alpine to score better results towards the end of the season. Pierre Gasly impressed the most with his qualifying and race performances as he bagged points in four of the last five Grands Prix, vaulting up to 10th in the Drivers’ Championship.
After sitting P9 for most of the campaign, the double podium at Interlagos, and Gasly’s brilliant drives in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, propelled Alpine to P6 in the Constructors’ Championship.
Gasly is very pleased with the comeback by Alpine
Speaking in Abu Dhabi, Gasly was asked on the different development path Alpine has taken. The 28-year-old explained that there was a reaction after the season start and that he was impressed with the upgrades the team brought.
“Yes, I mean, everything that you see now kind of were discussed and developed in May, June,” Gasly said. “I would say there was a bit of a reaction after March when we saw how far back we were.
”You’ve got to make clear directions on where you’re heading to and what are the limitations of the car, what you can change during a season and what you can’t change with a car concept.
“I’ve tried to guide the team as much as I could in terms of feedback, but the way they’ve reacted and what they brought was very impressive.
”If you look in terms of performance and the development of any other teams, I wouldn’t be surprised that Alpine is probably the team that found the most performance out of them all.
”I think they should definitely get credits for that.”
Bouncing back from a very disappointing start and taking positives into 2025
However, he admits that sixth in the championship is not the position the team wanted to end up. But the circumstances at the beginning of the year didn’t give the opportunity to fight for fifth place against Aston Martin.
Alpine is now going into 2025 with optimism and momentum after going from last to fighting regularly fighting for points after the Austin GP upgrade package, Gasly says.
”At the end of the day, is the job good enough? No, we’re still sixth in the championship and that’s not where we want to be, but looking at things at the start of the year, it was almost unrealistic to make such a comeback.
”I must say I’m very pleased with what they’ve found and also just the understanding behind the car we have. Going into 2025, we have a lot more optimism that we understand how things are working now.
”Sixth doesn’t really reflect the performance of the end of the year. It’s obviously across the full season. But there is definitely a momentum that will boost at the start of next year.”
Gasly believes Baku was his strongest drive of the 2024 F1 season
Gasly was then asked on which performance was the best when looking back at the year. He responds with the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he finished 15th with an impressive 50-lap stint on Hard tyres.
Despite the difficult result, the performance was a learning for the coming races, where Gasly impressed especially in qualifyings.
“Baku, P15, absolutely no one noticed it and probably my best race of the year. That’s Formula 1 and that’s what can be frustrating at times.
”I finished that race, I don’t think anyone could have done a better lap than I’ve done for 50 laps in a row there. I was pleased and I said, ‘f***, I’m going back home with absolutely zero points, 30 seconds from the top 10’.
”It’s pretty tough to find satisfaction in that, but at the end of the day, I was always trying to come with the same approach and get the best of what you have.
”At the end of the day, that race, three weeks later, got me a Q3 lap in Austin and got me some points in Austin, in Mexico.
”It’s just the unseen efforts that go into a season, but ultimately play a part when the car gets better. This was probably the most controversial performance, because I do believe it was my best race of the year and was one of the worst end results.”
And finally asked on what his best moments of the season was, the Frenchman named Brazil. Alpine scored an unexpected 2-3 finish at the Interlagos Circuit, with the valuable points boosting the team up some positions in the constructors standings.
”My best moment? Brazil. As a team [it] was just spectacular, unexpected, emotional and very well rewarded for all the efforts of the team.”
