Alpine sinks in Bahrain, Gasly: ​​”What we expected” | FP

Weekend to forget

In a race closed without any retirement due to accidents or technical problems, a rather rare fact in a Formula 1 GP, the first weekend of the 2024 world championship did not allow theAlpine to make an easier comeback from the last row of the starting grid. On the Sakhir circuit, which had already been indicated as unfavorable by the drivers the day before due to its characteristics combined with those of the A524 at the start of the championship, the French team still remained at the bottom of the group.

Also in this case, Esteban Ocon he finished in front of his teammate Pierre Gasly, crossing the finish line in 17th position against his compatriot's 18th. An extremely disappointing start to the world championship for the Enstone company, which was still expecting difficulties of this kind.

The fact remains that the 57 laps regularly completed were nevertheless essential in order to obtain important data in view of the next races, as admitted by Ocon himself: “It was the continuation of what we saw in qualifyingand overall, it wasn't the weekend we wantedor – he declared – the most important thing is that we had a clean race and collected valuable data that we can take to the race in Jeddah next week. It will be interesting to see how we behave on different tracks and in different conditions. During the short break between races we will concentrate and see where we can improve. We have to stay focused, positive and going in the right direction. As a team we have to keep our heads high and our feet low to go to Saudi Arabia.”

Comments, again, very similar to those of Pierre Gasly: “It wasn't our day, but probably at the end of it it was what we expected – he added – I made a great launch at the start, overtook a couple of cars, but then I was caught in a bit of chaos at Turn 1, with cars spinning in front, which forced me back. It wasn't ideal, but then we did everything we could do with what we had in our hands today. We have many areas to improve and I know the hard work will continue behind the scenes. We need to continue to make progress because we are not yet where we want to be. Next week will be a different track, a new opportunity and a new challenge to continue to show our progress.”