“I don’t think so, unfortunately”– Alpine on possible improvement in performance after the Hungarian Grand Prix win by Esteban Ocon.
Alpine had a dramatic win in Hungaroring, with Esteban Ocon making the most out of the chaotic circumstances at Hungaroring. However, Alpine is not trying to think mammoths possibility after this glorious achievement.
Alpine’s sporting director Alan Permane claims that the recent win doesn’t show them drastic improvement in this year’s competition. “I don’t think so, unfortunately.”
“I think if you look at where we were in qualifying [on] this track we felt would suits us, I think we are where we are,” he explained. “[But] we will continue learning the car and we will continue improving it but only by small amounts like others will do theirs.”
We close the distance against the midtable.
Even Alpine’s executive director Marci Budkowski also said that Alpine is only closing the gap against the midtable boys, and it is unrealistic to gain major wins this year.
“We knew it was going to be tight, as it has been for all this season, to get into Q3,” Budkowski admitted. “We looked more competitive than usual compared to last races and compared to our competitors.
“It looked like we’re just a little bit further forward of the backmarkers, closer to McLaren, Ferrari. In the mix, with a bit bigger of an advantage on the Alfa Romeo and Williams, still very much in the pack with AlphaTauri and Aston Martin.”
“But a little bit more competitive altogether from the weekend,” he added. The team went into qualifying’s Q3 for the first time since the Spanish GP, and after that they only expected a good number of points and not a win.
“We knew we had a really good chance of making it to Q3 and obviously, that was the objective,” said Budkowski. “Equally, I think Fernando’s form was very, very good from Q1 and we were almost hoping for bit better with Fernando.”
“So happy with both cars in Q3 and a little bit disappointed, but I guess disappointed is not a bad Saturday.”
