Bruno Famin speaks on the progress made by Alpine in the last few months after a bad F1 2024 start, as he notes on its line-up for 2025.
Amid all the driver discussions, the two seats at Alpine is talked about too albeit in lesser manner considering the position they are in. Both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are out of contract as of now, with limited options to move around too.
While Gasly hasn’t been linked per se with drives elsewhere and is tight-lipped about anything related to his contract, Ocon has had links to Mercedes and even Sauber/Audi. The options are certainly limited but the number of names are in good number.
Now that Ocon has announced his departure from Alpine after 2024, it has thrown open another set of speculations as to whether the Frenchman already has a seat set or he is on the lookout, while for Alpine too there is a decision to make.
The team is not stressing at the moment since they do have reserves like Jack Doohan and Victor Martins at their disposal and with Ocon’s departure, there is less chance of Gasly going elsewhere. “I think we really need to focus on improving the team, developing the team,” said team boss Famin, when asked about their situation before the announcement.
“This is the first priority. And we don’t feel any pressure about the driver market because we have two good drivers. We will be happy to continue with them, but we want to take our time and we have very good drivers in our academy, with Jack, with Victor especially, and we have no stress,” he summed up.
Amid the driver discussions, there are also stories around Flavio Briatore lending a advisor hand to his former team years after the crashgate shenanigans. In addition, BBC noted about operations director Rob White leaving the Alpine team after 20 years of service amid latest management shuffle, which saw the hiring of David Sanchez in a senior role.
Famin is satisfied with how the team is reacting to the 2024 mess. After a major slump in early part of F1 2024, they have managed to get themselves in Q2 and also collect two points thus far. “Where I’m satisfied is with the reaction of the team, because the car is what everybody knows at the start of the season, but we have been able to bring earlier than planned upgrades to come back to the minimum weight,” he said.
“And that was very good. Now we need to switch to the… And this is what we are doing, to switch to the second phase of the development of that car. You know that we have worked quite a lot in understanding why we were in such situation. And having with us now since two weeks David Sanchez on board will help us to go faster in the recovery, which is what we hope.
“But for the time being, it’s a bit too early to talk about when we will be able to bring the next significant upgrade. I think there is nothing magic in the performance of the car, but David has an immediate impact in the mindset of the team, in paving the way for everybody, in setting a clear position we need to follow for developing that car and the following one.
“From last year, I’m sure that we are not exactly on the same position. We have developed that car in a way that I think it’s a kind of dead hand, to be honest, just to be frank. And we had some upgrades planned. We put it on the car. They worked as expected, which is good. We had it earlier than expected. It was good as well.
“Now we have to really rethink a bit the situation and to prepare the future upgrades quite differently. But it’s part of the process we’re having in Enstone where we need to review our way of working to make the company more agile, more efficient, and really performance-oriented, changing the mindset. And again, I think having now, since two weeks, David on board will help us going much faster because he’s setting a very clear direction for developing the team, and then the car.”
Here’s news on Esteban Ocon leaving
Here’s Pierre Gasly on Esteban Ocon tangle
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