Feature

Team Talk - Sunday in Marina Bay

Alpine F1


Pierre Gasly
“A very difficult and frustrating race for us in the end. We are just not quick or competitive enough at the moment. The lack of pace forced us to try some different strategies in hope of improving our end result. We stayed out long on the Mediums on the first stint and lost a lot of time to cars we were racing at the start. The plan then was to disrupt some cars behind in the hope to benefit Esteban to get something from the race. The reality is three races ago [in Zandvoort] we were ninth place and at the last three races we have been far away from the top ten. We have to find some performance and there is a lot of work ahead of us to improve our current level. I look forward to a short break before Austin where we all must be determined for a return to form.”

Esteban Ocon
“We had a good start in today’s race, gaining a few positions off the line, but we did not have the pace to be a points contender, and we were unable to keep up with the train of cars ahead. We maximised what we had, but without any big opportunities for us to capitalise on we weren’t able to move further ahead. We have a good break ahead of us where I’m sure we are all looking forward to some recovery before a busy final few months of the season. We must continue to work hard, aim to extract more from the package, and be in a position where we can optimise everything that we have in our hands.”

Oliver Oakes, team principal
“It was a tough day on track and a repeat of what we saw in Qualifying, which follows the trend from the previous couple of races. We had expected to perform better here on this circuit configuration, but we did not have the pace. This is the reality of where we are currently. There’s a lot of work going on behind the scenes to bring more performance to the car in the coming races. With four weeks until Austin, we need a final push to the end of the season.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

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