“We didn’t capitalise on opportunities” Pierre Gasly gives upsetting Alpine update amidst CEO Laurent Rossi’s “amateurish” remarks
Alpine's Pierre Gasly talked about the internal environment in the team after Laurent Rossi's comment on their 'amateurishness'.
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Last year, Alpine were riding on a high thanks to Fernando Alonso‘s amazing performances, which yielded the team their 4th spot in the Championship Standings, surpassing the likes of McLaren and Aston Martin. Then came the surprise exit of Nando as he announced his shift to AMR to take now-retired racer Sebastian Vettel’s place beside Lance Stroll. In order to fill up the vacant position in the French team, Alpine were embarking on hiring their own reserve driver Oscar Piastri. But McLaren acquired the Australian with a massive deal, leaving Alpine with Pierre Gasly as their new recruit.
Fast forward to 2023, Alpine have horribly failed in their pursuit to give a competition to Mercedes. They had commented time and again that it was their goal for the new Championship season to improve upon their fourth-place finish last year. But five races into the campaign, the team is in the sixth position on the points table, with only 14 points in total. This has prompted their CEO Laurent Rossi to bash the team, saying that they have been ‘amateurish’ in their attempts.
Owing to Laurent Rossi’s comments on Alpine’s recent underperformances, the fans believe the internal dynamics of the French team are unsustainable. Now, Pierre Gasly has given his remarks on what is going on at the Alpine headquarters in Enstone. He said, “I think we are all disappointed with the start in the first four races but we didn’t manage to capitalise on all the opportunities.”
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Pierre Gasly is still optimistic about Alpine catching up to Mercedes
Even though the first four races of the 2023 season were abysmal for Alpine, they managed to score 6 points at the Miami GP. The weekend started off quite well for the French team with Gasly attaining a fifth spot start at the Qualifying. Then, both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon managed to end their run in the top-10 as they came 8th and 9th respectively. This has given Gasly hopes for Alpine climbing up the Constructors’ Standings to combat Mercedes and Ferrari in future.
Gasly said, “It’s a constant conversation with Laurent and Luca and everyone in the team. We obviously want more and be fighting with Mercedes and Ferrari and the guys ahead of us and I think we’re not too far from that.”
In other news, while competing with Mercedes remains Alpine’s main target, the Silver Arrows are aiming to take over Aston Martin’s place in the Championship Standings. Even though AMR is Mercedes’ customer team, they have excelled in their performance and surpassed the Silverstone outfit to snatch the second spot in the points table. Now, it remains to be seen whether Mercedes can now close the 6-point gap to Aston Martin and beat Lawrence Stroll’s team in the upcoming races.
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Riddhi Mondal
(1821 Articles Published)