Alpine: Monaco setback a 'glitch' in team's progression

Alpine executive director Marcin Budkowski believes the Enstone squad's progression is still on course despite its disappointing performance in last weekend's Monaco Grand Prix.

Alpine left Monaco with just two points in its bag, courtesy of Esteban Ocon's P9 finish in last Sunday's race. Both Ocon and teammate Fernando Alonso qualified out of the top ten in the Principality, while the Spaniard crossed the checkered flag a distant 13th.

Unfortunately, the underperformance allowed both Aston Martin and AlphaTauri to overhaul Alpine in the Constructors' championship.

"It could be worse," Budkowski told Motorsport.com. "Unfortunately, our competitors made the most of the race, and especially the ones that were behind us and that were scoring even bigger points because two of the leaders dropped out.

"So, in the championship it's painful. It was a bad weekend for us, honestly.

As was the case for several teams, Alpine's struggles in Monaco were caused by the A521's difficulty in switching on its tyres.

"We struggled from Thursday with pace and mostly tyre temperatures. And although we kind of recovered a bit with Esteban in qualifying, he managed to qualify in a decent position, the car wasn't at that stage set up for tyres that were working.

"So overall, it's a bit of a weekend to forget. However, there's lots of learnings to get from it as well."

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Budkowski said that Alpine's disappointing result in Monaco would not impact the team's progress.

"I don't believe that this is a weekend that is relevant to the progression we've shown in Portugal and Barcelona," he added.

"So we need to make sure that we leave it behind, and we also get the learning from this weekend to make sure we progress and especially don't get caught out in Baku again.

"It's car, tyres, circuit and atmospheric conditions, they are the four variables to the equation. I believe it's a glitch in our progression."

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