Despite their recent good form, Alpine knew things would be a little tougher at this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
The team fitted five new parts to Pierre Gasly’s A524 ahead of the weekend, but each part was more than the team’s seasonal allocation, resulting in a 10-place grid penalty. Technically, Gasly has received a 50-place grid penalty for this weekend’s race, meaning he will start from the back of the grid for tomorrow’s main event.
That means Esteban Ocon needs to be at the front of the pack if the team is to extend their run of scoring at least one point in four consecutive races – but the task was made tougher after Ocon failed to get out of Q1 in qualifying on Saturday, meaning he will start the British Grand Prix in 18th place.
Just two places ahead of Gasly and directly in front of him.
Ocon’s Q1 run was apparently marred by some sort of miscommunication within his team at the end of the first segment of qualifying: “I asked the team three times.[w]Are you still pressing?
The team said to me, ‘No, you took the chequered flag,'” Ocon told Lawrence Barrett immediately after qualifying. “Obviously we made the wrong decision every time.
Ocon continued to discuss the weekend in his team’s post-session report.
“It was a complicated session with the track drying and then the red flag stops, but in the end it wasn’t the best qualifying today,” Ocon said. “I didn’t make the right decisions at the right time and I seemed to get behind the other drivers and wasn’t pushing when the track was probably the best. There was some confusion at the end and I thought I had one more push lap and then I was told to abort the lap.”
“In the end it was a frustrating day where we didn’t perform to our best and we need to reflect on it. Considering where we started it will be a difficult race tomorrow and we will do our best to make progress especially if the weather remains as changeable as it is now.”
Meanwhile, in the garage, Gasly suggested that with the penalty, the real start of the weekend would be tomorrow: Facing a grid penalty, the team did not want to take any unnecessary risks on Saturday, and with no way to improve his starting position on Sunday, Gasly only did one lap of the track on the soft tyre.
“Before the weekend I knew I would start the race from 20th place because I would end up getting a penalty, but I’m glad I got it done,” Gasly said in Alpine’s post-session report. “It wasn’t a very exciting session for me, I only did one lap on the soft tyre and the track conditions were improving so I didn’t want to take any risks today.”
“For me, the weekend starts tomorrow and we want to attack as much as we can and hopefully get back into the top ten and continue the good form we’ve had in the last few races. But we also know that the conditions here are very tricky and how easy it is to go off track here,” Gasly added. “At the same time, these conditions could make tomorrow’s race quite interesting and might help us to make up ground and move up.”
Alpine team boss Bruno Famin said the team had not done enough from an “operational” point of view on Saturday but might have a chance on Sunday.
“From an operational point of view we weren’t good enough today,” Famine said in the team’s post-qualifying report. “In the changeable conditions it was important to push and get times when the track was at its best, but we missed the best moment. In Pierre’s case we knew there was little to be gained from a grid penalty tomorrow, so we didn’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“The timing was tough for Esteban at the end. [checkered] “It was a missed opportunity to flag and improve on his time. We will reflect on what happened and work to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future.” [the] In the future. Tomorrow is a long race, so we will consider how best to approach the race from the starting position and seize the opportunity to move up the rankings.
Weather conditions could play a role on Sunday, giving Ocon and Gasly the opportunity to move up the order, but Alpine will need something special to happen at the British Grand Prix if they are to improve on their points-scoring record.
