McLaren has made an impressive turnaround throughout the 2023 F1 season. The Woking-based team got off to a slow start and struggled to get off to a good start. By the time they left the grid for the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix they were in sixth place with just 17 points for the season, 23 behind fifth-placed Alpine. But with a series of upgrades to their MCL60, McLaren has overtaken several teams, including Alpine, to move up the ranks.
Could the French team also be staging a shocking comeback?
Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon finished in the points for the second consecutive race, with Gasly finishing ninth and Ocon 10th, and the team adding another three points to their list after a double-points win at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix. After five consecutive races without points at the start of the season, Alpine has now scored points in four of the last five races to move out of last place in F1 and into seventh place in the 2024 F1 Constructors’ Championship.
After the race, Gasly hailed this week’s race as the team’s “best race of the season.”
“It was our best race of the season as a team so I’m very happy with today’s result in that respect,” Gasly said in the post-race team report. “We had a good qualifying on Saturday and a good result today in ninth place. We managed the race well with a two-stop strategy and each stint was well managed.”
The driver finished just seconds behind eighth-placed Sergio Pérez, highlighting how close he was to his best result of the year.
“I was close to getting eighth but unfortunately missed it on the last lap, but I gave it my all. Still, I’m happy with a strong race, fighting with two faster cars, McLaren at the beginning and Red Bull at the end, so that’s a positive for us,” Gasly continued. “We now need to understand why our package was strong here and take this lesson for the future. We’re on the right track, we’ve got three points in a row so we need to keep the momentum going!”
On the other side of the garage, Ocon said it had been a “challenging” race but a “satisfying” end to the race for the team.
“It’s good to be able to score points with both cars for the second race in a row. It was a difficult race with car balance and some difficult stints, but I’m still happy to bring the car home in the top 10 again,” Ocon said.
“Nico and I were good friends. [Hülkenberg] “I managed to keep the pace at the end and take the final points on merit. I was sliding a lot so there are some things to analyse, like why the race conditions made it difficult to drive the car,” the Alpine driver continued. “Still, I was much more competitive this weekend and got a good reward. Next weekend in Austria, we have two chances to score points in the sprints so I will aim to continue my points tally.”
Photo: Kim Ilman/Getty Images
Team Principal Bruno Famin — I was faced with some questions earlier this week. Following the news that Alpine will be welcoming Flavio Briatore as an executive, he praised the team for showing “positive trends” in recent weeks.
“We are pleased to have scored points with both cars again in Spain and as a team in the last three Grands Prix. This is a positive trend that we must continue. We were better on this track but we must analyse why and continue to further improve the whole package. The race was a tough two-stop for both cars,” said Famine. “Both drivers in particular [tire]energy and fuel management. Now it’s time for the sprint weekend in Austria and we’ll aim to continue our good form and get into the points.”
Last year, Alpine scored three points at the Red Bull Ring – Ocon picked up two with a seventh-place finish in the F1 Sprint and Gasly added one for a tenth-place finish in the Grand Prix – and a similar result next weekend would see Alpine close in on double figures for the season, and move a few more points clear of sixth-placed VCARB.
It may not be enough to truly reflect McLaren’s progress from last year, but it’s certainly progress given where they started this year.
