” We’re just too slow “, confided Pierre Gasly to Canal+ at the finish of the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, September 22. A cold, resigned, but above all lucid observation. Alpine is not at the level of its ambitions, and is sinking, weekend after weekend, into a crisis situation that has become normal. There are six race weekends left before this nightmarish 2024 season comes to an end.
A saving truce?
But before heading to Texas for the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Alpine and the other teams will be able to enjoy a three-week break. We will continue to work to try to grab the opportunities we can afterwards. There is a small break, we hope to come back with a more competitive car. ” tried to put Esteban Ocon on Canal+, who is experiencing his last Grand Prix with a team he joined in 2020.
Alpine wants to improve, but they are not the only ones. At the end of the season, all the teams aim for a successful final straight to enjoy a better budget for the following season. Pierre Gasly, who is chaining anonymous races, finished sixth in Austin in 2023, in a season finale where the blue and pink single-seaters were used to places in the top 10. The improvement package that will be brought to Austin should allow Alpine to fight again for the last places in the top 10, with Haas, Williams and Racing Bulls.
Heterogeneous competition
Because this year, the Normandy team has lost the taste for points. With only 13 points after eighteen Grand Prix, Alpine is ninth in the constructors’ world championship, and only owes its salvation to Sauber’s blank season (0 points). The green single-seaters of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou ensure that the French do not finish last, but the other teams are advancing slowly but surely.
Williams is Alpine’s main rival. With 16 points, the British team has a small lead, but the momentum is much better on its side, with 12 points collected over the last five GPs, while Alpine has only taken 4. Ahead of them, Haas (31 points) and Racing Bulls (34 points) seem, as things stand, out of reach. It is therefore eighth place that the French team is coveting.
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So should we think about the long-term future at Alpine? Ocon’s departure has been made official, he will be replaced by the young 21-year-old Australian Jack Doohan next year. But the tensions surrounding the engine for the 2026 season are also disrupting the French team. Flavio Briatore is campaigning for a Mercedes engine, thus irritating the many employees at Viry-Châtillon. Let’s hope for Alpine that the end of the 2024 season provides answers to questions that remain unanswered…
