F1 | Gasly: ​​”Lost 40 points of load in the contact with Ocon”

For Alpine this start to the 2024 Formula 1 season has been complex to say the least. An A524 born with high expectations, destroyed since the first and only pre-season test in Sakhir, Bahrain, continues to disappoint with worrying regularity and things did not go differently at Suzuka either.

In fact, things went even worse due to a contact at the start between the two Alpines, those of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, in which the former Red Bull and AlphaTauri driver was the one who got the worst of it. The A524 number 10, in the impact, lost several points of aerodynamic load, making it even slower than normal.

“We had a fantastic first start, we managed to move up three places,” said Gasly. “The second start was very good, I managed to pass Esteban and come alongside Yuki [Tsunoda]but then unfortunately I found myself in the middle of Yuki turning left and Esteban turning right.”

“And unfortunately Esteban touched me, taking off the entire left side of the floor of the car. So I ended up with less than 40 points of downforce. So, from that point on, it was pretty much game on. I tried to stay there. out hoping for another red flag to change things.”

“That's how it went, more or less. Just a racing accident. But today it cost us a lot. And yes, it was a very, very long, very long, very difficult afternoon.”

Gasly said the Enstone team had at least made some progress in Japan after introducing a package that included a substantially modified front wing.

“The good thing is that we had the first set of updates, which apparently delivered the results we expected,” he said. “So it's been very positive. We just need to keep working with these new components and updates on the car. I know the team is working hard. And we need it.”

“Obviously the Suzuka race is not very representative of what we had, there was still a lot to do. But overall we know we are still too slow and we need to find more performance. And I know they are working very hard on it. And yes , I appreciate that they were able to get the first updates this weekend. And now we need to get the next set of new features as soon as possible.”