Pierre Gasly has called on Alpine to clean up its act and improve its reliability following another weekend of missed opportunities for the Enstone squad.
In Hungary last weekend, for the second race in succession, Gasly failed to see the checkered flag, his A524 sidelined after 20 laps by a hydraulics issue.
It was a particularly challenging few days for Alpine. In qualifying, a strategic blunder left Gasly and teammate Esteban Ocon stranded in Q1 and at the back of the grid.
But Gasly’s situation worsened as he was forced to start his race from the pit lane following set-up and power unit element changes to his A524.
Despite these hurdles, Gasly managed to make some solid progress during his prolonged opening stint on the hard tyre, running as high as 10th before his first pit stop and before retiring on lap 33 of 70.
Speaking to the media after the race, the 28-year-old Frenchman did not hide his disappointment about missing out on a potential points finish.
“It’s too many issues, too many problems,” said a frustrated Gasly. “It’s a massive shame because we started from the pit lane, we [were] actually in front of Fernando [Alonso] at that stage of the race, our strategy worked perfectly with what others decided to do.
“I think we put ourselves in contention for one or two points, and… today it’s hydraulics, yesterday was the strategy, last week I didn’t race at Silverstone because of the gearbox."
Gasly emphasized the team's capabilities, highlighting the disconnect between their potential and their performance.
“There’s just too many issues and I know the team is much better than that, so we just collectively need to do a lot better and stop allowing missed opportunities weekend after weekend.”
©Alpine
When asked if Alpine's struggles were perhaps a by-product of the team’s aggressive development programme to compensate for its poor start to its season, Gasly offered a clear distinction.
“No, these are two different topics,” he said. “Hydraulics and gearbox and this is reliability, yesterday strategy.
“I know we should not be doing this type of mistake and I trust the team, I know that they’re good enough not to do this, so we’ve just got to be more focused, we’ve got to be more on it.
“As I said, it’s frustrating considering we had the performance to – even from the pit lane – make it to the top-10 and fight for these points.
“We are having a tough season, we need to capitalise on any opportunities and we just don’t give ourselves these chances.”
Unfortunately, Ocon’s dismal Sunday at the Hungaroring mirrored his teammate’s frustrations. While he managed to finish the race, the outgoing Alpine charger crossed the line a lowly 18th.
©Alpine
"Worse," was Ocon's blunt response when asked how his car felt on race day compared to Saturday's struggles.
Disappointing weekend from an operational side point of view, disappointing weekend from a performance car point of view, disappointing weekend from a reliability side of things – I guess that’s why Pierre DNF’d,” he added.
“We should have just saved the car at the end of the race, there was nothing for us to play for. We were not quick, we did not take the ideal strategy. Nothing was good to keep so we need a good reset before Spa.”
The lack of pace left Ocon and the team searching for answers.
"Yes, plenty of ideas," he replied when asked if they knew why the car underperformed.
"First of all we were not very competitive in general, but there are other issues with my car that [I've been] having for quite a few events that we need to get rid of, but we can't find it, so that's where it is tricky."
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