Alpine’s downturn in performance has been one of the biggest surprises of the season so far.
Much like McLaren in the early rounds of the 2023 season, Alpine has found itself struggling to extract performance out of its sluggish and reportedly overweight car.
Qualifying in the two lowest spots on the grid and subsequently failing to finish higher than 17th on race day was undoubtedly a distressing experience for the Alpine duo.
Now, the French squad will be looking to emulate McLaren’s impressive mid-season comeback in hopes of salvaging their season.
“McLaren last year was clearly an example of what they’ve done. It’s exactly what every midfield team wants to do. The way they’ve done it is very impressive,” Esteban Ocon told the media.
“I think no one in Formula 1 has done that in the past, through a season. They were definitely an example.”
Alpine has recently been hit with a number of high profile departures, including technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer. This prompted the team to adopt a new three-pillared structure within its technical department, mirroring the solution implemented by McLaren last year.
Ocon insisted that these changes haven’t unsettled the team, reiterating that he has faith in Bruno Famin’s leadership.
“Now, obviously the situation internally, how things are going to be restructured, I completely trust the team with the process.
“The aim is to improve things that are not where we want to be. I trust Bruno to improve and take us to a further level.”
“Obviously, it is a frustrating time as a driver, as an engineer, as a team boss, as everyone, because we don’t like the situation we are in, but we keep sticking together all around the team.
“That’s the most important, because if the morale goes down and everyone is down after such difficult times where you are going downhill, that’s not the case.”
The French driver is managing expectations, however, noting that there’s no guarantee Alpine will be able to make the same jump McLaren did.
“Until we’ve done it, it’s not an easy thing to do. If they’ve done it, it doesn’t mean we are going to be able to necessarily do it. Until we do it, we can reach out if that’s the case.
“That’s going to be a very different press point. So far, we haven’t done it, so we can’t really say.”
Photo credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team
Ocon stressed that the process will require some patience, with Alpine focusing on introducing upgrades throughout the season in hopes of finding extra performance.
“I think the whole year. We need to improve step by step. Obviously, it’s going to take time. It’s not going to be something overnight,” he said.
“There is a plan to bring updates through the year. Hopefully, after every update, we are going to make a step.”
He admitted that Alpine had been bracing themselves for a dip in performance, as the simulator trials he completed over the winter already signalled trouble.
“In the simulator in December. I think that’s when we realised that there were some issues that we needed to fix.”
Despite the disappointment, Ocon stated that, for his part, he will continue to focus on bringing his A-game every weekend.
“To be honest, it’s no different.
“It doesn’t change my vision on things and how I want to approach the weekends.
“The most important for me is to extract the maximum out of the car and do the best job I can. Come out of the car after a weekend and think, ‘okay, I’ve done the maximum that I could have done. I’ve done the best out of my weekend.’”
He added that he is optimistic about Alpine’s prospects, given the team’s championship-winning pedigree and the resources at their disposal as a works team.
“I think this team, some years ago, they’ve created a winning machine. They were champions. They created cars that have won races.
“These things were created in the same places. They were created in Enstone, in Viry, in the same places. These ideas were made there.
“It’s of course a new era, Formula 1, but it is possible that it happens again. I have full trust that they are going to be able to turn the situation around.”
Asked if Alpine’s current struggles bear any echoes of his Formula 1 debut with the now-defunct Manor team, Ocon stated that the two are not comparable, as he doesn’t believe Alpine has regressed to backmarker status.
“I think it’s a different situation. Of course, we are sharing the same spots on the grid at the moment, but it’s only race one again.
“With Manor, we were very far from the cars in front. Here, one-tenth and we can gain a few positions. That’s the difference,” he continued.
“We are much closer to the back than it was in 2016, when we were four seconds off. It’s a different situation and there is a way to improve here, which there wasn’t before.”
Fellow Frenchman, Pierre Gasly, also weighed in on Alpine’s woes, saying: “Well, I think we told it at the launch, at the start of the weekend, that it was going to be a very tricky and very difficult start of the year, and, yeah, it’s been the case.
“I mean, you know, it’s been very tough. We know exactly what we’ve got to work on.
Gasly echoed Ocon’s sentiment, confirming that there are upgrades in the pipeline—but he doesn’t expect a remarkable turnaround to manifest overnight.
“We know already we have a plan of development coming over the next few months. Unfortunately, as we stand right now, this is where we are, and there’s not going to be a very quick change overnight, but it’s going to take some time. But, yeah, we do have a plan to improve things.
“So far, we’ve only driven in Bahrain, so I think I still want to see this weekend and in Melbourne, but, as I said, after Bahrain, we know that it’s not going to be massively different, for sure.”
