Despite a slow start to the 2024 F1 season, France-based Alpine has climbed out from last place and climbed to eighth in the F1 Constructors’ Championship standings thanks to a string of strong performances. Despite being shut out at the last British Grand Prix, Alpine arrives in Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix having scored points in four of the last five race weekends.
However, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly said Friday’s dual practice session was “difficult” or “challenging”.
Ocon set the 18th fastest time in Friday’s first practice session, just ahead of Gasly in 17th, and things weren’t much better after that, with Ocon in 14th and Gasly a few places behind in 16th.
“It’s always good to come back to the Hungaroring, it’s a fun track to drive and a place that gives me lasting fond memories,” Ocon, winner of the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, said in the team’s post-session report. “Overall it was a difficult Friday. We tried some experiments in both sessions but the car just didn’t work and behave as we wanted it to.
“We’ve been struggling a bit with the overall balance and grip in both short and long runs,” Ocon added. “The car felt better with more fuel, but we need to improve overall to be competitive for the rest of the weekend. We’ll have to look at these points and try to improve them for tomorrow’s qualifying.”
Gasly had a similar view from his side of the garage.
“It’s nice to be back in Hungary but it’s been a tough start to the weekend for us today,” said Gasly. “Obviously the high temperatures here are quite difficult to deal with and the car wasn’t running great today. In terms of car balance and set-up we have a lot to work on tonight so of course some simulator work on a base like tonight will be important.”
“We haven’t found the sweet spot for the car on this track yet. We still have a lot of work to do. Hopefully we can put what we’ve learned into practice and be better by tomorrow.”
