From the podium to the fight to avoid the last positions. In one week, the scenarios completely reversed for Alpine, with the French team almost helpless in the face of a Monza where it has never really been in a position to conquer a good result, thus seeing McLaren, now in breakaway in the constructors’ standings for fifth place.
After the good third place conquered in Zandvoort, Alpine was aware that he would have encountered more difficulties than in other appointments, but realistically not even the transalpine had predicted such a complex weekend.
Both Gasly and teammate Esteban Ocon were eliminated directly in Q1, qualifying in seventeenth and eighteenth position respectively, continuing those problems already encountered after a disappointing Friday. In itself, the A523 didn’t show disappointing performances in terms of top speed, thanks to a very low-load package, but the set-up choices paid off with a struggle in cornering. In the race, the situation didn’t improve, also showing some reliability problems that left us perplexed.
Esteban Ocon, Alpine A523, Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523
Photo by: Alpine
Gasly narrowly avoided being lapped by the winner Max Verstappen in fifteenth position, also given the Dutchman’s request to slow down to keep the Power Unit temperatures under control, while the other A523 was forced to retire as a precaution after having encountered a steering lock problem both in the first and second stint: despite the data available to the team initially not showing any anomaly, in the end it was decided to take the safest route, calling the Frenchman into the pits.
Gasly explained that Alpine had expected to struggle at Monza, but not so much: “It was very painful. I don’t think we’ve ever had such a lack of competitiveness compared to our rivals. We knew from the beginning of the season that it would be It was difficult. But yeah, it was clearly very difficult out there.”
The curious aspect is that the behavior of the A523 on low-load circuits was fluctuating. In Baku, the Alpine weekend had been penalized by technical problems and the lack of time to perfect the technical innovations, while in Spa, where a podium was also achieved in the sprint thanks to a good strategy, in the race there was no seen such a negative step, albeit influenced by the episodes. For example, Gasly was initially stuck behind Oscar Piastri’s crashed car, thus losing numerous positions, while Ocon had to try and make up for the lack of good top speeds for a long time.
A position also shared by Ocon himself: “I don’t think it’s that simple, even Spa requires low load and it’s a fast circuit, but we were very competitive there. So, I think it’s not just a matter of fast circuits. We have to reset and keep trying to understand. I’m sure we will find the answers and come back stronger. I have full faith in the team and I’m sure we will succeed.”
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523
Photo by: Erik Junius
However, the Monza weekend did not reserve any satisfaction, any sign of hope, among other things in a period in which the possible engine deficit of the French Power Unit was discussed at length: “The most important thing is to understand and quantify the origin of this drop in performance and come back next year with a stronger package,” explained Gasly.
“Because I overtook Carlos at Zandvoort [Sainz] on the track, with the same tyres, on pure pace, and this weekend he’s on the podium, while I’m almost a lap away. We knew it’s a very sensitive track in terms of power level, but it seems like it’s not just about that, but the whole package, that needs to be improved for this track.”
Ocon added that the negative performance on the Brianza circuit does not detract from the progress that, from his point of view, the Enstone team is making behind the scenes, which is why it makes no sense to be demoralised. “I’ve seen worse weekends in the past. It’s not because we had a bad weekend that we give up. I think it’s a good weekend in terms of learning and analyzing the difficulties we’ve had. During the break, we will be able to focus on exactly what went wrong and get back on form in Singapore”.
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