Another “frustrating” day for Alpine in China

The mood in London in February was very different from a year earlier. WhenAlpine unveiled its A525, the tone was much more optimistic than that used in the preamble to a 2024 year where the French team expected to suffer. Full of confidence after a fiery end to the season, the leaders ofAlpine wanted to ride the wave of momentum by dominating the mid-table and getting closer to the best.

But after a poor weekend in Melbourne (no points), the arrowed A posted a disappointing performance at the start of the weekend in Shanghai. This raises concerns about the real level of the single-seaters.enstone ? For the French, the double elimination of Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan in SQ1 represents nothing of the car's performance. "It's clearly not the result we were hoping for today, but I'm happy with the feeling with the car." tempers Jack Doohan, 16th, who managed to beat his teammate for the first time. "Ultimately, several factors contributed to this frustrating failure in Sprint Qualifying, including traffic on the track during our fast lap. But we will stay focused and try to maximize our performance in the Sprint Race tomorrow morning."

Alpine still looking for his first point

The Australian had a difficult start to the weekend with a hydraulic failure that prematurely ended his free practice session. Despite never having driven on the circuit, Jack Doohan managed to find what he needed to beat his teammate, even though the latter was hampered on his flying lap. “The car performed well throughout the day, so we will analyze the data to see what we can improve for Qualifying and hopefully put ourselves in a much better position for the Grand Prix.” continues Mick Doohan's son.  “We made good progress between Free Practice 1 and SQ1, and I really think we should be fighting for SQ3, as the gap is very tight between several midfield cars.” Pierre Gasly adds

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With two drivers so far from the top 8, Alpine will struggle to score points on Saturday in the Sprint and the real challenge will be the afternoon's qualifying in order to put themselves in a better position for Sunday's Grand Prix. “Looking at the timesheets after the session, seeing both of our cars out in SQ1 doesn't really reflect our level of performance this weekend.” assures Dave Greenwood, the sporting director. “Both Pierre and Jack were held up by traffic on their final flying lap, which caused them to lose a lot of time. With only one hour of testing, we still managed to make some positive progress on balance and set-up between sessions. The team also did a great job getting Jack’s car back up and running after his technical issue on track this morning.”

Last season, Alpine had to wait until the sixth weekend of the season in Miami to score their first point. Hopefully it will take them less time this year, but the car looks much better than last year and should quickly be able to compete in the top 10. But in the face of ultra-tight competition, every detail will count and time is already running out...