Alpine entered another disappointing chapter at the start of 2024. Even in a hectic Australian GP, the French single-seaters finished far from the points.
The regret was especially great for Esteban Ocon since the Frenchman was in contention for points until bad luck ruined his chances.
OCON, WHAT A BAD LUCK: “WITHOUT EXTRA STOPS, POINTS POSSIBLE”
In a race conditioned by the withdrawal of three single-seaters from the five top teams, Esteban Ocon was in the game to bring the Alpine A524 into the points. Starting from P15 the Frenchman was extracting the maximum from the car.
However, he was then forced to stop on lap 42 for an unscheduled third stop:
“It was an unlucky race because we had to make a further stop to remove a tear-off visor stuck in the rear brake duct.
“Before the pit stop I was running in the group with Alex [Albon] and Kevin [ Magnussen ] and ahead of Nico [Hülkenberg].
“Without that extra stop, we probably would have had a chance to take points looking at how the race unfolded.”
Despite a frustrating P16 finish, Ocon is happy with the progress made by the team:
“This weekend, in general, the car behaved a little better, and it shows that we are making progress .”
Gasly dejected: “We maximized what we had”
Pierre Gasly ‘s race was more linear, but the Frenchman was unable to get into the fight for the points.
Starting seventeenth and finishing thirteenth certainly cannot satisfy the former AlphaTauri driver:
“There is no satisfaction to be gained from the result, because finishing outside the points is never the goal we aspire to.
“We made some progress, however, we tried to maximize what we had and I would say we succeeded.
“I did my best in the car. It was a difficult race at times .”
Gasly is hopeful that improvements to the A524 can reverse the team’s fortunes.
