Pierre Gasly was forced to retire midway through the Hungarian GP, despite having had a good chance of scoring points. This, however, was not an isolated incident. The Frenchman has struggled with mechancial issues in recent weeks, which he felt, hurt Alpine’s chances of climbing up the standings.
Gasly had woes with his Alpine A524 in Silverstone too; on another weekend where the car initially looked good enough to finish in the top 10. After the Hungaroring retirement, he said,
“There’s just too many issues at the moment. Today’s is hydraulics, yesterday was the strategy. The weekend before was the gearbox, I didn’t race.”
Two tough F1 weekends in a row with mechanical failures for a frustrated @PierreGASLY – however the Frenchman is convinced that @AlpineF1Team can turn things around: https://t.co/Hp6JwN8ui9
— Adam Cooper (@adamcooperF1) July 23, 2024
Gasly went on to insist that the car had pace for points. He added,
“I know we’re just a lot better than that. I know the team is a lot stronger than that, and we’ve got to be more on top of everything because, at the moment, we don’t give ourselves a chance to capitalize on any chances.”
After a mediocre 2023, Alpine aimed for a better 2024 season. Unfortunately, they started the season as backmarkers, and even though they have improved since then, poor reliability continues to haunt them.
Adding to the misery is the internal problems within the team. With multiple people resigning, the team is in dire need of restructuring.
Ocon’s exit from Alpine
After a public fallout with Ocon at the Monaco GP, Alpine announced that the Frenchman would leave at the end of 2024. They insisted that it had nothing to do with what happened at the Principality, but a potential tussle for power between him and Gasly had been brewing for months.
Gasly’s exit became official just days after he collided with Gasly in Monaco, and the latter then, had his contract extended. This put Alpine in need of another driver, something they are still working on.
Multiple engineers including Pat Fry and Matt Harmann also left the Enstone-based team, but they brought back one key entity to the camp.
Former Team Principal Flavio Briatore joined as an Advisor, and he aims to take Alpine back to the top.
Their work, however, has to begin with appointing a good driver and hiring key figures to steady the ship behind the scenes.
