Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were disappointed by a lack of overall pace from the A524 during the Italian Grand Prix in Monza last weekend.
Alpine have struggled to extract performance from the A524 throughout the 2024 season, with the Italian Grand Prix being no exception. The French marque currently sits P8 in the constructors championship, well adrift of Haas ahead following a pointless weekend in Monza.
Speaking after the Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon lamented the uphill battle facing the team having once again failed to score points despite splitting strategies between both sides of the garage. The Frenchman explained their performance will be analysed in order to learn from their performance.
“[I finished] one [place] higher than where I started.” Ocon said. “It’s not for lack of trying. This weekend we tried everything. In qualifying we tried qualifying on the used tyre, we tried then on the new. Today I tried a reverse strategy, Pierre [Gasly] on the other hand, tried to start on the medium.
“We did two different things. In the end we just need to regroup and see exactly what was best. Maybe it was the medium-hard that was better to do. I have to sit with the engineers and have a look because that’s the only thing we didn’t try. Pierre went there but didn’t manage to stay on the one stop strategy.”
On the other hand, Ocon explained the car felt much better than last time out in Zandvoort. He explained, however, that the team were unsure as to what improved the balance and will have to focus in on changes that had been made.
“There have been some positives this weekend. From Friday to Saturday I have struggled a lot less with the issues I had in Zandvoort, compared to Friday also. I was struggling, I was very much off the pace of where we should be.
“On Saturday suddenly things came alive. We need to point out exactly what that was. For me it was a very different race weekend with that going away, so well done to the guys for that. But we need to know exactly what it is for it to not come back again. We are obviously working on that.”
Teammate Pierre Gasly crossed the line 1 place behind Ocon in P15 following a controversial clash with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen. When asked about the collision with Magnussen, who has since received a race ban as a result, Gasly stated the stewards decision was incredibly harsh as he believed he lost little to no time in the exchange.
“Honestly, this was nothing,” Gasly said of the incident. “The whole afternoon we were dead slow. We really need to get on top of it because I really believed we would have more potential in the race and it was a lot harder.
“Someone told me he got a 10 seconds penalty. I’m a bit surprised [by] that because he tried, it was a bit of wheel to wheel and in the end I really didn’t lose any time.
“I’m a bit surprised. I hope somehow they can revert on that because that would be definitely unfair. I’ll be happy to [speak with the stewards] – I’ll see what I can do. That will feel very unfair for the incident that it was”
