F1 News: Pierre Gasly Reveals Alpine A524 Performance Woes After Pre-Season Testing
Following the 2024 F1 pre-season testing, Alpine driver Pierre Gasly stated that additional enhancements are needed to unleash the full performance potential of the A524 Formula 1 car. The team is trying hard to optimize the car further and hence, it could take a while before the team begins to climb the pecking order.
Key Takeaways:
- Alpine driver Pierre Gasly stated that the A524 Formula 1 car requires additional improvements to maximize its performance potential after the 2024 pre-season testing.
- Gasly expressed concern about the team's 16th and 17th-place finish in testing, emphasizing the need for patience and an aggressive plan of upgrades to address performance issues.
- While anticipating a challenging start to the 2024 season, Gasly highlighted the importance of thorough analysis and adjustments to unlock the car's full potential.
Gasly's remarks follow the lackluster performance of the car during testing, where the French driver secured the 16th position, just one place ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon in 17th.
As a result, considering the current performance, Gasly suggests that the team might have to endure a difficult start to the 2024 season. He told Sky TV:
"It's not going to be an easy first race.
"We're not going to start from where we would have liked. But at the same time, we've got to give ourselves some time to understand that new car concept that we have.
"The good thing is we've identified very clearly what we've got to work on as a team. Now, whether we're able to fix it with car setup or not, for the first few races of the season, time will tell, but for sure there'll be an aggressive plan of upgrades which we will need to close the gap."
Alpine Press Image
Speaking further on Alpine's 16th and 17th place finishes with respect to other drivers, he added:
"To be fair I haven't really focussed on others because there's been so much going on our side.
"I don't think we look great. But at the same time, we still have a couple of days to really understand everything we've done.
"We've put the car upside down, done a lot of tests. So hopefully, some analysis and answers will bring us some more performance. And then, we'll find out, no one will hide any more next Friday.
"But I think we'll have to be patient, even if it's not what we like as drivers, but clearly it might take some time before we really unlock the performance we want from that car."
Adding on the pecking order, he said:
"We're not at the top, that's one thing we know. But then I don't want to make any conclusion now, as I said, it's a new car, there's a lot to understand, there is a lot of performance that we will have to find.
"But right now to make a claim or any conclusion after this much running will not be fair. We'll have to work over the next few days. And hopefully, we'll have a better and more complete car for next week."
Gasly and Ocon gave similar feedback about the car and thus, the team might have an idea of what needs to be done for the Grand Prix next week. He said:
"It has been very clear with Esteban, we had very similar feedback straight away.
"And then yes, it's all about analysing whether we can fix these issues with set-up ahead of next week, or whether we need bigger upgrades to counter these couple of issues which we can identify already.
"So yeah, a lot of work. Still, it's only three days of testing, it flew by. We'll try to put the car in the best place possible for next week."
Alpine Press Image