Alpine finds silver lining with ‘over-performing’ floor upgrade amidst chaotic Baku weekend

Alpine had a horrible weekend in Baku. Pierre Gasly's car caught on fire, and Esteban Ocon's sprint race ended early.

Alpine finds silver lining with ‘over-performing’ floor upgrade amidst chaotic Baku weekend

Pierre Gasly's Alpine catches fire (Credits: Santa Maria Times)

The Alpine Formula One team has been working hard this season, but things haven’t gone as planned. Despite having the fifth-fastest vehicle on the grid in terms of performance, the French team has battled with consistency and luck. It presently sits sixth in the standings, failing to collect a single point in both races at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix despite bringing significant upgrades. Despite this, Alpine’s sporting director is pleased that their floor upgrade has exceeded expectations.

Alpine had a horrible weekend in Baku, with Pierre Gasly‘s vehicle catching fire during practice and crashing during qualifying. Esteban Ocon‘s sprint race was also cut short to eight laps, and he had to restart from the pit lane after the team violated parc-ferme rules. Despite the setbacks, Alpine took a positive note because their floor upgrade outperformed expectations.

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In an interview with Alan Permane, the team’s Sporting Director, he disclosed that the floor renovation provided the answers they sought. “It worked, in fact it overperformed a little bit, so that is a positive to take away from this weekend,” he said.

Alpine had brought a significant upgrade package to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, including a new floor, front and rear suspension, and a circuit-specific rear wing. However, their plan backfired, and they had a terrible weekend at F1’s first sprint weekend of the 2023 season. Despite that, Permane was satisfied with the performance of the new floor.

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Alpine hopes to mirror their 2022 season’s fourth-place finish with significant upgrades planned 

Alpine team's pitstop
Alpine team’s pitstop (Credits: Planet F1)

Baku saw a new weekend format with only one practice session allowed on Friday, so teams had less time to analyze their upgrades. However, Permane remained optimistic and said, “Looks very much like we’re going to continue that trend of just being able to put things on the car without really having to test them too much, which is such a huge benefit. That’s something that we grew in confidence with last year as more and more things come through.”

Alpine completed an intensive and effective improvement effort in 2022, allowing them to capture P4.This season, they hope to finish closer to third than fifth, although it seems improbable, with Aston Martin jumping them and the top four teams being a little ahead.

Nonetheless, Permane remained optimistic about the team’s chances and said, “We have to just keep doing our job, putting upgrades on the car, and improving the car. And then assuming, like last year, that we improve at a better rate of most other people, if not all other people. It’s a long season. We’ve still got 19 races to go, a very, very long way to go. We’ve had some real misfortune, but we are still absolutely targeting that.”

Looking ahead to the next two races, Permane revealed that Alpine has “something in Miami, something else in Imola,” and that there is “definitely another tenth coming and then another tenth, so there’s good stuff coming in the pipeline, and having that confidence that it’ll work first time is great.” While Alpine had a terrible weekend at the Azerbaijan GP, they are still optimistic about their chances for the rest of the season.

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