Alpine has “no reason” to believe that it can’t be the fourth best F1 team in 2023 despite multiple issues
Alpine Technical Director Matt Harman is confident that the team will be the fourth fastest by the end of the 2023 season.
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Alpine F1 team (Via F1.com)
Alpine F1 team hasn’t had the best starts to the season in 2023. Ahead of preseason testing, The team had big goals and ambitions. One of their intentions was to finish fourth in the championship standings. While it seemed like a real possibility, at the start of the year, right now, it just seems a bit tough. with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly at the helm, the team has still not been able to get the results that it expected.
The Enstone based squad has had one of their most disappointing starts to the season having acquired only 57 points in the first 12 races. This is put them behind Aston Martin and McLaren all the way in sixth place in the constructors championship standings. Although, one of the teams Key highlights is their podium finish with Esteban Ocon in Monaco this year. Nevertheless, the consistency just doesn’t seem to gel with the team.
In an interview, here is what Matt Harmon had to say. “At the start of the season, we threw a lot of new parts into the fray. Our competitors were later. So we just took a little breather,” he said. We haven’t changed our goals. We want to be the fourth-best team and I see no reason why we shouldn’t be able to do that by the end of the season,” Matt went on to continue.
Recently sacked Alpine Boss Otmar Szafnauer reveals the underlying issues within the team
Otmar Szafnauer had joined the team about 18 months ago. Ever since then, he noticed that the staff that was attracted from rival teams generally were on long term contracts. This meant the gardening leave was enormous, leading to long lead times. Szafnauer stated that the team’s lack of understanding led to these issues. Apart from that, most of the heads reported to someone above Otmar Szafnauer in the food chain at Alpine.
Among all the leadership changes within the team, it has been noted that everyone else is getting away. Alpine seems to have not gotten it right. The drivers have been facing issues with the car reliability and consistency throughout the first half of the season. The leadership process at Alpine has just caused an uproar in the sports and entertainment industry. It will be interesting to see what happens at the upcoming Dutch GP.
In case you missed it:
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- “We are going in the right direction,” Fred Vasseur optimistic about Ferrari’s performance despite missing out on a double podium
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Varad Joshi
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