Alpine’s government technical director David Sanchez has described the group as being “in a little bit of a nook” with its growth within the early phases of the 2024 System 1 season.
Sanchez was employed by Alpine final Could, having labored on the Enstone-based outfit from 2005 to 2007 as a junior aerodynamicist earlier than transferring to McLaren and Ferrari, with a quick second stint in Woking early final yr.
When Sanchez took up his duties, Alpine was but to attain some extent in 2024. A brand new flooring launched on the Miami Grand Prix introduced the A524 all the way down to the burden restrict, and different efficiency enhancements led the group to attain 14 top-ten finishes in grand prix races, together with a double podium in Brazil.
“The automotive was not performing as a result of at first of the yr, it was very heavy, and aerodynamically it was in a little bit of a nook,” Sanchez instructed AMotorsport.com in an end-of-season interview on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“So earlier than I joined that they had performed an excellent job on weight-saving. That is for positive. The automotive was near the restrict once more, and we steered fully the course of aero growth.
“The chassis and the burden of the automotive had been one difficulty, and the aerodynamic traits had been one other difficulty. So when put collectively, it did not give an excellent begin of the yr. The chassis received sorted, the burden received recovered, and now we appear to have recovered a lot of the aerodynamics.”
Alpine propelled itself to sixth place within the 2024 constructors’ championship, scoring 54 factors after the summer season break – solely the highest 4 groups did higher over that interval.
Esteban Ocon, Alpine, Pierre Gasly, Alpine
Photograph by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Photographs
Nevertheless, this doesn’t satiate Sanchez’s ambition.
“I believe we’re coming again to an inexpensive degree, but it surely’s not… I would not say it is the place the group must be, as a result of when you have the folks, you’ve the infrastructure, the place are you aiming to be?” the Frenchman mused.
“I believe some groups are joyful to be, most likely, within the midfield. This isn’t the place we might wish to be. We’re resourced to be aggressive. So for now, as an instance we have recovered the dangerous begin of the yr. Now we simply must maintain going, to proceed and maintain enhancing.”
On this article
Ben Vinel
System 1
Alpine
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