Pierre Gasly doesn’t think Alpine can overhaul its results like last year, as he knows that the F1 team made conscious decision to focus on 2026.
For a team like Alpine, a season before the big shot change is giveaway year. Knowing that they will have a different power unit from 2026 onward, the French F1 outfit from the start decided to put less weight behind the car in 2025. They would still bring updates, but not as big to push it to the top.
It was a conscious decision, something discussed with the drivers too. Heading into any F1 weekend, Gasly knows that he can be knocked out in Q1 itself, considering the tight field and rivals, who are bringing performance. Despite the short comings, Alpine has done well at occasions.
Gasly has dragged the car into Q3 and score points. As a driver, despite knowing the short hand, he has to give his maximum with the hope of a return. And it does frustrates if he isn’t getting the results that he or the team deserves. At the same time, he has one eye on the bigger picture too.
“I think overall we slide a lot which on a new tyre manages at times to get some decent performance out of it,” said Gasly to media. “But ultimately in race conditions when you have more degradation, hotter conditions etc. It’s not something which is competitive over a full race distance. I think we know at the moment when we go into qualifying it’s most likely that we get knocked out in Q1.
“And then inside the car you just try to do the best job you can and hoping that some other guys leave a little bit on the table. And then try to get to the next stage etc. I think in qualifying generally I’m feeling like I’m able to really extract a lot from the car. Obviously difficult to drive and it’s not easy. I do feel that obviously pushing to the extreme limit, that’s all we can do really because that’s what we have to fight.
“We’re clearly not on the right end of the midfield. And we’ll have to have a risky approach and try every single weekend. We also know why since the start of the year we want to focus on 2026 which I fully backed the team for doing it. Also means that we didn’t develop that car as much as some other teams might have done it.
“So put us a bit on the back foot for this year with hopefully some better dividends for next year. If I can be honest with you, for me I try not to care about it at all. I know what I got to do as a driver. I got to be competitive. I got to focus on myself as an athlete, work hard, push the team, focus on my car, my setup and motivate the guys as much as I can.
“Obviously the environment and the noise might not help that sometimes. Performance obviously is frustrating for everybody. But I can see how much effort the guys are putting in and how much they’re trying to do the right stuff. So I can only show the example to all these guys. And knowing the big picture, obviously, it’s not nice knowing that until the end of the year.
“I don’t know if we’re going to score points. I don’t know how many times we’re going to have the chance. I don’t really know what’s going to happen over the next few months. What I know is the work we’re doing for next year from everything I’m seeing at the factory is good. Can’t wait to see what it looks like on track.
“But at the moment short term we got to fight as hard as we can,” summed up Gasly, who doesn’t thinks that Alpine can take the step like it did in 2024. After languishing at the far end, the French outfit pushed itself in the upper half of the midfield after their double podium in Brazil.
They scored handy points in the last few rounds after developments, which they could use in 2025 too. But with their rivals stepping up, they have fallen behind. He knows realistically it will be difficult to beat them, but he will not give up trying. “Realistically, are we going to fight for it [to be off the bottom]? Yes. Is it achievable? Some might say no, some might say yes,” continued Gasly.
“Last year people got rid of us way before the end of the year and managed to turn it around. If you want my honest opinion, this year is slightly different. Last year I knew towards the end of the year I had a car that could allow me to fight on pure pace for points. Right now at the moment we’re not close to the points.
“We’re slower than the cars that we fight with. We’ll need a bit of help. It’s racing, anything can happen. This weekend it might rain, it might happen a lot of things over the next five months. But on paper it’s going to look tricky to close that gap,” summed up Gasly.
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