Alpine is preparing for the new challenge
Once the pre-season tests in Sakhir are over, it is time to return to Bahrain for the first free practices of the 2024 world championship, which unlike the classic weekend program will take place on Thursday 29 February (the same will happen next week in Saudi Arabia in respect of Ramadan). Everything is ready at home too Alpinewho after the good work of the week wants to return to the track with the main objective of recovering from a 2023 full of difficulties, on and off the track.
Ocon not fully optimistic
Thus will begin the fifth season of Esteban Ocon at the wheel of the French team (in 2020 still known as Renault), with which the transalpine took his only career victory in Hungary in 2021: “After three days of intense pre-season testing and a long winter of training ahead of the new season, I'm eager to get back behind the wheel to compete – commented – the test session in Bahrain was extremely valuable and we learned a lot about the new car and its characteristics, with the car improving since day one. As a result, we hope to see further progress over the course of the weekend. We know what we are working on and we need to get the most out of our package to give ourselves the best chance of achieving something at the weekend. It is difficult to assess the order of priority after such a short test program, with different programs and fuel loads. We focused on ourselves and collected as much data as possible. The same will be true for the weekend in Bahrain. We know that we are entering this season a little at a disadvantage with the new car conceptbut the team is working hard to bring more performance to the next races.”
Uphill start
Second season in Alpine, however, for Pierre Gaslyalso very excited for his seasonal debut but with very similar expectations to those of his teammate: “The dawn of a Formula 1 championship is always a unique sensation – he has declared – I'm always very excited because it's the moment when all the chatter and anticipation stops and we get out on the track to start racing again. I am in excellent shape both physically and mentallyI had a fantastic off-season and I feel ready for the challenge of 24 races in my second season with Alpine. I expect it will take some time to get the performance we want from the car, but that's no surprise given that it's a new concept. I'm realist. I know it won't be an easy start for us, but the most important thing is to continue to identify key areas of work to learn and progress. Sakhir is a great circuit for racing. There are several overtaking spots, so it's usually an exciting circuit for us drivers. Last year I got some points after a great performance on Sunday in my first race with Alpine. Obviously, this is always the natural goal and we will see how the race weekend unfolds this time.”
So in 2023
Last year, in fact, Gasly concluded in ninth position ahead of Alexander Albon's surprising Williams. His teammate Ocon, however, was more unlucky and was forced to stop withdraw in the second half of the race due to technical problems.
#Gasly #time
