Gasly: 'Alpine is not miles behind Mercedes and Ferrari'
General
Things are unsettled at Alpine. Performance is not as hoped, and CEO Laurent Rossi has demanded improvement otherwise heads may roll. Pierre Gasly sees that everyone working for the French racing stable is incredibly motivated to do better than in the first five GPs of 2023.
In the press conference, Gasly was asked about what the atmosphere is like within Alpine at the moment. "I think we all share the same ambitions inside the team. We all want to see the team performing at the top and fighting for better positions than what we've been doing so far. I wouldn't say it's criticism, but more the eagerness, the will and the desire to be right there at the top. Everybody is trying their best."
Alpine have collected just 14 points so far this season, good for sixth place among constructors. Gasly knows his team should be able to do better than that. "We've had a slightly slower start than what we would have liked and wanted. But now, we just need to keep our heads down and keep progressing weekend after weekend. Moving forward and finding some more performance over the next couple of weekends," said the 27-year-old driver.
Alpine wants to leapfrog
It should be possible to take a fairly big step forward. It is mainly about performing more consistently, Gasly said. "I don't think we're miles behind Ferrari and Mercedes right in front of us. Definitely, we've got some potential. We need to unlock a bit more from the package we have. We've got small bits coming here and there. Hopefully, that can close the gap with these guys."