Following the 2024 Formula 1 season’s pre-season testing at Bahrain, majority of the F1 teams and drivers grasped a good understanding of their 2024 F1 challengers. Out of the many F1 cars, Alpine’s A524, in particular, displayed quite mediocre performance, which is crystal clear in the team’s final ‘fastest lap’ table: Pierre Gasly in 16th and Esteban Ocon in 17th positions, out of 20 drivers.
In the aftermath of the pre-season testing, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly revealed his concerns about the A524 and its on-track performances.
Pierre Gasly talks on upgraded A524
In the 2024 F1 pre-season testing at the Bahrain International Circuit, Pierre Gasly–Alpine’s Frenchman–completed a personal total of 140 laps out of Alpine’s overall 333 laps. The 28-year-old French racer recorded his fastest lap time at 1m 32.159s, which placed him in 16th position in the final ‘fastest lap’ table.
During a media session with Sky TV, Pierre Gasly shared his ‘concerning’ impressions on the Alpine A524, following its lackluster performance at the Bahrain testing.
“We’ve put the car upside down, done a lot of tests. So hopefully, some analysis and answers will bring us some more performance. And then, we’ll find out, no one will hide any more next Friday.But I think we’ll have to be patient, even if it’s not what we like as drivers, but clearly it might take some time before we really unlock the performance we want from that car,” Gasly said.
Confessing Alpine’s ‘difficult’ start before the upcoming Bahrain GP, Pierre added, “It’s not going to be an easy first race. We’re not going to start from where we would have liked.”
“[But] at the same time, we’ve got to give ourselves some time to understand that new car concept that we have. The good thing is we’ve identified very clearly what we’ve got to work on as a team,” Gasly further added with optimism.
Regarding Alpine making ‘aggressive’ upgrades to ‘unlock the performance’ of the A524, he expressed, “Whether we’re able to fix it with car setup or not, for the first few races of the season, time will tell, but for sure there’ll be an aggressive plan of upgrades which we will need to close the gap.”
Pierre Gasly’s ‘concerning’ claims come after he heavily tested the Alpine A524 to its limits, during the three days of the F1 testing.
Alpine’s performance at F1 testing
The Alpine F1 team displayed an ‘underwhelming’ performance with the A524 during the three testing days at Bahrain. The Alpine A524 recorded its fastest lap time at 1min 32.061secs (Esteban Day 2 PM Session) and 1min 32.149secs (Pierre Day 3 PM session), which are the second-lowest lap figures with respect to the other F1 cars.
In terms of pure mileage numbers, the Estone-based team, again disappointingly, finished in 8th position–which is the third lowest spot–with a total mileage of 1807 kilometers, and completed total 334 laps of the Bahrain International Circuit.
Based on statistics, Alpine’s A524 is one of the slowest F1 cars of the 2024 season, likely due to it being overweight and aerodynamically incompetent. Alpine’s real shortcomings will be on better display at this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, between 29th February to 2nd March.
Will Alpine be able to make ‘aggressive upgrades’ to ‘unlock the A524’s performance before the Bahrain GP? Or will Pierre Gasly’s prediction about Alpine’s ‘difficult start’ come true? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
