26/06/2024
NEWS STORY
BWT Alpine F1 Team heads to Spielberg for Round 11 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, the Austrian Grand Prix.
Esteban Ocon: It was encouraging for us to have a good performance throughout the whole weekend in Barcelona where we again finished in tenth place and added important points to the Constructors' Championship. The car was relatively competitive right from the start of the weekend and we managed to deliver throughout Qualifying and be in Q3. The race, on my side, was slightly more challenging. There was a lot of sliding and the car balance was tricky but, even so, we finished comfortably inside the points and that's positive. We just need to assess these details to improve for next time.
I have always liked racing in Austria. I have some fond memories here. Back in 2020, after a year out from racing, racing in Spielberg was the first one of the season. I remember the very wet Qualifying that year when we managed to qualify in fifth. In 2022, we had a good weekend here, taking ten points in fifth place. The track itself is short so usually the field is close and every hundredth and thousandth of a second counts. We have to get our high speed balance right and the aim for us is keep the positive trend going, which means an eye on Q3 again and, of course, valuable points.
This weekend is scheduled to be Ocon's 144th Grand Prix start, tying the total of 1972 and 1974 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi.
Pierre Gasly: I flew back from Barcelona feeling really pleased as we have now made it three points-scoring finishes in a row. Although it's only small points, it's been three good performances where we've managed to improve the overall package even without adding any updates to the car. We must keep pushing on and target a continuation of this form as every point will count by the end of the year in a tight Championship fight. Of course, there was a little bit of disappointment not to be eighth place on Sunday but to be fighting a Red Bull on merit right up until the final lap shows our level improvement and that is satisfying.
Triple headers are always challenging. After Barcelona we're straight into Austria and for a busy Sprint weekend. Spielberg is a short lap, the shortest for lap times during the year, with only nine corners. It's a challenging one with kerbs, hard braking zones and a lot of high-speed corners. It's always a very good event in Austria, a great atmosphere and a place I have enjoyed racing. We must take our learnings from Barcelona - especially high speed performance and balance - and apply them here this weekend. As it's a Sprint we have to be on the pace straight away and put ourselves in a position to compete in both races.
Alpine performed its three fastest pitstops of the 2024 season in the Spanish Grand Prix. With Pierre Gasly's 2.32s stop in the Japanese GP being their previous best, the team performed stops of 2.03s (Ocon), 2.24s (Gasly) and 2.27s (Ocon again) in Catalunya, making Alpine the third-fastest team in pitlane in 2024, behind only championship leaders Red Bull and Ferrari.