'Alpine has big update plans: car in Imola three tenths faster'

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szafnauer talks update plans alpine
8 April 2023 at 15:34
Last update 8 April 2023 at 16:41
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  • GPblog.com

Alpine seemed on track to do very good business in Australia. Pierre Gasly was on course to score at least ten points and Esteban Ocon was also in with a chance of a top-ten finish. However, a crash between the two teammates threw a spanner in the works, but the speed was hopeful. In Imola, Alpine's car should be another three tenths faster than it was in Australia last week.

Alpine's strong pace came a bit out of the blue and at the French formation, they themselves are not sure what it was due to. The next Grand Prix in Azerbaijan will be a good gauge of where the team really stands. Baku will also see the first major updates of the season on the car. Furthermore, Alpine has tentatively planned updates for Imola, Montreal and Silverstone. Team boss Otmar Szafnauer confirmed this to Auto, Motor und Sport.

Gasly and Ocon's car should be three tenths faster in Imola than it is now. Should Alpine live up to that, the gap with the three semi-top teams would seem to have closed. "It's a game of dependencies, unfortunately. But we think we can at least keep up with the development pace of Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin," Szafnauer said. However, the competition is also taking updates, so it remains to be seen whether it will make Alpine more competitive straight away, but time will tell.

Possible delay lurks

At least for the Viry-based team, it is to be hoped that bringing the updates will not cause a delay now that the repair work is so big after the Melbourne crashes. Alpine is now busy producing spare parts to be able to replace parts at all in Baku in the event of some damage. Making these spare parts takes a relatively long time and may cause updates to be delayed.