It would not be an exaggeration to state that at the start of 2024 Formula One season Alpine appeared to be the slowest car of the grid. The Enstone-based team had wrapped up the 2023 Constructors’ Championship in a respectable P5, with multiple point scoring finishes and podiums with both their drivers.
To find themselves at the back of the grid in the beginning of the 2024 season was a bitter pill to swallow. Halfway through the 2024, Alpine is once again regularly up for points-scoring positions — they have climbed through the grid, once again.
Despite not starting the British GP last weekend, Pierre Gasly remains positive about their progress — he claimed to have found “a lot more consistency.” Gasly admitted that taking the differential settings from teammate Esteban Ocon’s dashboard has helped him find the balance with his A524, although he states that the car is “not ideal everywhere.”
The differential swap seems to have added to Gasly’s confidence when it comes to handling the car as his teammate had a small but clear advantage earlier in the season.
“I think there’s definitely been a step.
“We realised at the start of the year, until Miami, we found out that there was a couple of things which weren’t right on my differential, and I kind of used the other side’s map and then the car felt a lot more together,” Gasly further talked about the differential settings which made a significant difference.
The 28-year-old explained that the settings played a large role in finding the balance, with which this step has helped massively.
He has been far more competitive, beating Ocon quite often in qualifying and races recently, although it must be noted he has had the lighter car.
“So this played quite a big part in terms of consistency on the following races in not having the ideal balance, but having it a lot more consistent and able to have a lot more consistency from the car.
“I think at the minute what we’re missing is the balance is not ideal everywhere. On some tracks like Barcelona, I was reasonably happy, we’re just lacking load in the high speed, which you know, triggers a bit too much sliding and then obviously in the race, overheating the tyres and pay the price on traction.”
Gasly still thinks that stability could be better, but with the addition of David Sanchez in the role of executive technical director in the team, Alpine has made concrete steps to address their issues.
“I think the stability is not ideal, but it’s fine. It’s just the understeer in some places, which we’re trying to cure, and then our traction is not ideal.
“When you put it that way, it’s not great, but obviously, you’re looking at fine details.”
The Alpine driver went onto say that they know where they are lacking and the team understands how to fix these problems, which is gratifying.
“What I like is we’ve got very clear ideas of what we’re missing. We have also good ideas on how to fix them.”
Gasly further adds that he is confident in the way Alpine is building on what they have. The results of this progression will be visible in the next season as they look to finish the current regulation era strongly.
“So I don’t think we’ll see everything this season but we’ll see some evolution this season, and I’m quite confident that also for next year we’ve got a good plan and processes to basically improve what we’ve got.”
