Laurent Rossi isn’t too happy with how things have panned out with Alpine in F1 2023 where he reckons the team is not learning from its mistakes.
After the hiring of Pierre Gasly to join alongside Esteban Ocon as a replacement to Fernando Alonso, Alpine had better hopes with its 2023 F1 season. It was not just down to the Frenchman’s hiring but their own trajectory to success.
But already in the first grand prix, things looked out of shape. Ocon had a nightmare as triple penalty cost him hugely, as Alpine were rescued by points from Gasly despite his Q1 exit. They were fine in Saudi Arabia, but Australia ended up in a disaster.
They looked good to score handy points in the Top 5 until the re-start where Gasly and Ocon collided to end their story. The subsequent grand prix in Baku was another disaster with multiple incidents where they couldn’t gauge the updates.
Alpine CEO Rossi isn’t too pleased with what he has seen so far, even questioning the resources put into the F1 team. “It is disappointing and I want to say that it is even bad,” he said in an interview on Canal+. “We started this year, not only with a performance handicap but also an execution handicap.
“And it shows. We are in a ranking that is not at all worthy of the resources involved. We are quite far, very far from the final objective of the year. What I see is that of course there is a lack of performance, but also a lack of rigor and execution but potentially a state of mind that is not up to what has been done in the past by this team.
“I didn’t like the first grand prix because there was a lot of, and I have to tell you, amateurish. This led to a result that was not good and mediocre and bad. The last race in Baku looks furiously like that in Bahrain and that is not acceptable. We have the right to make mistakes, it’s a basic principle.
“It is in mistakes that we learn. When you make the same mistakes twice, that’s because you haven’t learned and you don’t take responsibility. And that is not acceptable,” summed up a stern Rossi, as Alpine finds itself in sixth with eight points with a difference of six points to fifth-placed McLaren, who have had a disastrous start themselves.
Despite the dramas in Baku, Alpine were positive about their updates, even to the extent that they reckon the floor overperformed. In a red-flagged Miami GP qualifying, they secured double Top 10 result with Gasly in fifth and Ocon eighth, but only strong points will ease the tensions and bring some motivation in the team.
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