The ‘relegation’
The Hungarian Grand Prix was anything but satisfactory for Alpine, which completed the race at the Hungaroring with both its drivers outside the points zone, but not only that: in the direct challenge with Racing Bulls for fifth place alone in the Constructors’ Championship, the Enstone outfit was defeated. Both Lawson and Lindblad, in fact, once again reached the top 10, extending the Faenza team’s lead to +5 in the provisional standings over Alpine, which has now slipped to sixth position.
Behind Racing Bulls and Audi
A complex weekend then for the French team, as evidenced by the words of Pierre Gasly, who started 12th on the grid and remained 12th until the checkered flag: “Looking at the final result, as a team, we weren’t close enough to fight for points and we lacked the pace to compete with Racing Bull or Audi – he admitted – we tried something different and had new sets of tires available, but even so, it didn’t make much difference in our race. We pushed and did our best, but this is the reality of where we are at the moment, there’s no way to hide it and we can only solve the situation ourselves by bringing more performance to the car. Sometimes the car doesn’t give the best feeling and you still have the pace to get a result, but at the moment the feeling with the car isn’t good and the performance reflects that. Fortunately, the summer break comes at a good time, which means fewer races where points are at stake and gaps can be created. We know new parts are coming and we hope the updates bring the performance we expect. Other teams have shown it’s possible and we need to do the same. It’s important to make improvements, and quickly, otherwise it will make life difficult for us if we have to regain fifth place in the championship.”
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An even more difficult day for teammate Franco Colapinto, close to elimination in Q2 and only 15th at the finish line: “It was a very challenging afternoon and, in general, we lacked a lot of pace – he added, confirming the difficulties indicated by Gasly – after the first three laps, I started to have problems with the car and unfortunately couldn’t recover. Even with new tires, we were still far off the pace and slow, so we need to understand why, perhaps we sustained some damage because both the balance and grip were not optimal. We will discuss it with the team. We go into the break knowing that we need to continue working hard. In the last two races before today, we scored points, but we need to improve. Aston Martin has shown that it’s possible to make a big step forward and we hope to be able to do the same soon when we bring the updates. I will stay in Hungary for a few more days to participate in the Pirelli tests, but then I will go on summer vacation to rest and be able to return to Zandvoort ready to restart.”
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