Despite facing a tough season and dropping performance levels, Pierre Gasly is standing firm behind Alpine’s radical overhaul of their F1 car concept for 2024.
Before the major technical shake-up in recent months, Alpine decided against further developing the main ideas of the A523, opting instead to explore new avenues with this year’s A524 design. In 2022, the Enstone-based team finished fourth in the constructors’ championship, but they slipped to sixth place last year. This season’s first half has been especially challenging, with Alpine scoring only 11 points and languishing in eighth place in the championship.
Gasly remains confident that the decision to change the car concept was the right one. He explained, “I think it’s performance-related. Last year the team felt that it got to the end of the development with their car concept. As we missed our targets, they’re like, ‘do we want to go for another year where we know we’ll probably be stuck to where we are?’ And they said, we want more than that, so, we’ll try something else. Which to me, I think was the right choice. We’re not in Formula 1 to be satisfied with the sixth place in the constructors’.”
Although Alpine’s hopes for a better season have been dashed and even surpassing Haas’ seventh place seems unlikely, Gasly is optimistic about future improvements. He is counting on the work being done at Enstone and the potential for enhancement to yield better results in the coming months and particularly looking ahead to 2025. “Unfortunately, it didn’t pay out with the directions that, you know, they took with the car concept we have this year, but nonetheless, I still think the way the team’s operating is at a better level than when I arrived,” he noted. “So, it’s a matter of bringing that performance onto the car, which is obviously not easy, but I know we’ve got good directions already for next season, which will put us in a better place and with the sort and processes and the people and what they’ve built and kept working, I can feel that there’ll be something good coming out of it.”
Gasly’s unwavering support for Alpine’s strategic shift highlights his long-term vision and confidence in the team’s potential, even amid the current struggles. The Enstone-based squad remains focused on building a stronger foundation for future seasons.
