Alpine’s start to 2023 has been more than disconcerting. Bad weather in the tests, messages of optimism after these first days, a race in Bahrain with only one driver in the points And now another more than disconcerting message.
For what Otmar Szafnauer said in statements collected by ‘Motorsport’ that he sees in the fight for fourth place against the Aston Martin team. An Aston Martin team which, for the moment, is the second fastest behind Red Bull.
The France team never ceases to surprise. They look strong even if they only do Pierre Gasly added points in the premiere. in regards to Esteban Ocon It was a real nightmare, accumulating penalty after penalty and causing “pitorreo” even from Formula 1.
“We still don’t know the real pace because of some things that happened in the race. Esteban had all the problems we talked about, Pierre was stuck in 19th position for quite a while at the start,” detailed the team boss. . .
“I don’t know where we are compared to the others because we were out of position with one car and the other had the issues it had. I don’t think we’re far off,” he said.
Analyze the gap of seconds between Gasly and the midfield in Bahrain: “If we had looked at it from an optimistic point of view and Pierre had started ninth, we would have surely passed Bottas. How far would we have been from the Mercedes and Lance Stroll?”
and says that now they must “just” “get over” them. Almost nothing. “We want to be close to the guys we want to beat. From an operational point of view, we expect calm and trouble-free races,” he concluded.