Otmar Szafnauer claims Alpine is still closer to Mercedes and Ferrari

Otmar Szafnauer is confident in his team to make a strong comeback in the upcoming F1 races.

Otmar Szafnauer claims Alpine is still closer to Mercedes and Ferrari

Alpine cars at Miami GP (Credits: @AlpineF1Team/Twitter)

The Alpine Formula 1 team is currently sixth in the 2023 Constructors standings, but despite this fact, its Team Principal, Otmar Szafanuer, is not showing any signs of panic. He has made it known that while Alpine accepts that the team is not where the hierarchy wanted it at the current stage, the outfit is still very close to the lights of Mercedes and Ferrari.

The Alpine outfit was outclassed by the Woking-based McLaren Formula 1 team in Silverstone, which has struggled massively in the season. The McLaren drivers were able to secure a brilliant P2 and P4 finish for the team, and that has helped the papaya outfit in making the jump over Szafnauer’s team in the standings.

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However, while a lot has been made about the recent average performances of the Enstone-based team, Szafnauer is not too worried. While talking about the same with Formu1a.uno, he said, “Last year, we were not too dissimilar – except for the fact that Aston was all the way behind the rest of us.”

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“I have to look after this, but we are closer to Mercedes and Ferrari, [and] we maintained our relative difference to Red Bull. But Aston just jumped us and some others. So, it looks like that. If I look at the points, we are sixth now, which is not where we want to be. So we need to start scoring points,” he added.

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Alpine is all set to push hard in the remaining races before the summer break

Alpine (Credits: AutoSport)
Alpine (Credits: AutoSport)

The Alpine F1 team, after 11 rounds in the ongoing campaign, has only managed 47 points, whereas McLaren, on the back of its strong British GP outing, has put on board 59 in the same number of races. Otmar Szafnauer understands how crucial the upcoming races are, and while stressing about them, he said, “Our upgrades have worked this year, and there is another significant one coming before the break.”

The 58-year-old has made it clear that his team will push as hard as possible in the races remaining before the start of the summer break. Significant upgrades are planned for the upcoming races, and Szafnauer and Co. will bank on them to close the gap to the teams ahead in the Constructor’s standings.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have done a decent job for the team so far and have managed to extract the maximum out of the A523 on most occasions. The standout performance came at the Monaco Grand Prix, where Ocon scored a podium finish for the team.

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