After the promising pace of the AMR23 in pre-season testing raised curiosity within the F1 paddock, Aston Martin confirmed its leap forward by taking third and sixth places at the Bahrain Grand Prix with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
While Aston grabbed the headlines by helping Alonso to his first podium finish since Qatar 2021, the Silverstone-based team’s former Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer was keen to stress that the result in Bahrain reminded him of the 2014 race .
In his Force India guise – with Szafnauer at the helm – Sergio Perez had taken third place and Nico Hulkenberg fifth, when Bahrain was the third round of the 2014 world championship.
“Well, they made the leap [in avanti]. I mean, to be honest with them, it’s always been a good and efficient team,” said Szafnauer, who left Aston Martin for Alpine at the start of 2022.
“Congratulations to them, but I think Force India in 2014 was exactly the same: in the same relative position, with a podium finish. I think [Perez] qualified fifth in 2014 and had great race pace.”
“I congratulate them for taking the big step forward from last year.”
Although Szafnauer has admitted that it will be difficult for Alpine to close the gap to Aston Martin, the team principal wants instead to focus on the deficit of the Enstone team compared to the leaders to assess its progress.
Bahrain GP 2014: third place Sergio Perez, Force India
Photo by: Sutton Images
“We have to evaluate how close we were to last year’s pole,” he explained. “How close were we to race pace and where could we have finished if we hadn’t had our operational issues. Was it better than last year or not?”
“Because what we have to do every year is recover. And yes, Aston has made huge improvements and we have to achieve them too.”
Alpine looked competitive in Bahrain after a puzzling pre-season test, but its race weekend was hampered by problems with both drivers.
Esteban Ocon qualified ninth, but his race was marred by three penalties, starting with a 5-second penalty for misaligning at the start.
New signing Pierre Gasly, who admitted he was too aggressive with his set-up, qualified last after exceeding track limits on his fastest lap. But the Frenchman then stood out in the race, climbing up the order to ninth place, demonstrating Alpine’s potential.
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A523, Logan Sargeant, Williams FW45
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Szafnauer is convinced that Alpine’s aim of maintaining fourth place in 2022 is still possible, despite Aston’s step forward.
“I think so. I don’t remember where we were last year for the first race, but probably in a similar position.”
“I think last year Alfa [Romeo] beat us here. Maybe even Haas beat us. I do not remember. Aston didn’t beat us, McLaren was close to us. So even if the rivals are different, we have to do what we did last year, finish fourth and get closer to the top three.”
“This race wasn’t a normal race for us, we usually don’t make these operational mistakes. If we had had a normal race starting from ninth position, I think Lance would have preceded us. The question I ask myself is: if we had normal, could we have beaten them?”
“I don’t know yet, but we have to reflect and improve. It’s not the situation we want to be in, but I think we can do better.”
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