The weekend at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit is expected to be a tricky one for the Alpine team.
In one of the most complicated circuits, which put the drivers’ skills to the test in high speed corners, the team from Enstone will have to face the challenge of getting wings level right, a sprint event and the challenge of testing a new floor.
The update is expected to give them a couple of tenths according to Szafnauer.
“We will still bring the floor. The floor is more performance. It’s a tenth and a half to 2 tenths — it’s around 2 tenths of a second lap, I think. Whatever it is, it’s a new floor, it’s more performance, we are going to put it on.
“We have a short period of time to assess and analyse, but we have — on that side of it — we have good good tools, good tools to assess. The floor will be instrumented so that we can see if it’s sucking more, and how many points of downforce we get out of it.”
The team has therefore decided to use the next Belgian Grand Prix as a testing ground, after the disastrous Hungarian GP. Both drivers dropped out at the beginning of race, after an incident involving them, Daniel Ricciardo and Zhou Guanyu.
Szafnauer went on to talk about the importance for Pierre Gasly to focus on the upcoming race weekend. The 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner has only scored a single point in his last 4 starts.
“I mean, Pierre is doing a good job for us. He seems to be on the short end of the stick, so hopefully in Spa he can turn that around.
“Focus on the things that you’ve got control over, do the best you can and it will come. He couldn’t have predicted the Haas engine failure when we just pitted him to undercut Alonso. That’s not his fault.”
The Belgian GP is ultimately complicated by the Sprint race, but Szafnauer remained firm in his confidence in the work of his driver and the team.
“It does make it look a bit more tricky. But he’s capable, we’re capable.”
Photo credit: Alpine F1 Team
