Alpine says 'frantic and fraught' Baku weekend unlike any other

Alpine sporting boss Alan Permane says he has never endured a race weekend as "frantic and fraught" as the one suffered by the French outfit in Baku.

From Friday to Sunday, from free practice to the final lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, it was a drama-filled three days for Alpine.

The Enstone squad's issues started at the outset when Pierre Gasly's practice session on Friday was cut short by a hydraulic leak that led to an engine fire, which left the A523 stranded out on the track.

Gasly then crashed at the start of qualifying ensuring a back row start for himself in Sunday's race.

On the other side of the Alpine garage, Esteban Ocon's running in FP1 was also limited due to a gearbox issues, which in turn heavily impacted set-up work, to the point where Alpine was forced to pull Ocon's car out of parc ferme to adjust its suspension to avoid excessive wear of the car's floor plank, a move that led to a pitlane start for the Frenchman.

"I can't compare this weekend to any other," admitted Permane, quoted by Motorsport.com. 

"Honestly, it's been so frantic and fraught and difficult. It doesn't feel like any other weekend.

"You need to start off well prepared, and just have a smooth weekend. We had that with neither car in FP1. And it snowballed out of control from there."

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In Alpine's post-race comments, team boss Otmar Szafnauer made clear that the French outfit's calamitous weekend must remain a one-off.

"It’s been a bitterly disappointing weekend for the team in Baku and we must not repeat this type of performance again," said Szafnauer.

"We very much started on the backfoot on Friday and since then we were not able to make any kind of recovery in any of the sessions.

"We must limit these problems going forward and begin all Grand Prix weekends on the front-foot to make sure we give ourselves the best possible chance on Saturday and Sunday to score points."

Permane highlighted and praised Alpine's crews for their unwavering efforts as they battled the team's succession of setbacks in Baku.

"They've worked so hard this weekend," commented Permane. "They've had a hell of a job with Pierre's engine change. And that has knock-on effects that you guys don't see.

"They arrive here on a Wednesday and build the cars, but we also build our spares up: spare gearbox, spare engines and stuff like that.

"When you use all those on Friday, they have got to stay late Friday night, as there's no curfew on Friday night on a sprint weekend, because the cars are in parc ferme.

"So, they were here until 10 or 11 o'clock, replenishing that spare that they just used, and making sure we've got an engine and gearbox ready to go if we do the next one.

"So, it's a real double whammy for them. They had a really grueling Friday."

And for good measure, everyone embarked on a flight to Miami on Monday to be up and running on Tuesday morning in Florida, ready to do it all over again.

"How you recover from it, it's not easy, especially going straight into another race," noted Permane. "But we'll make the best of it.

"Some people will have a day off on Tuesday and will no doubt enjoy some sunshine and relax. We'll do what we can for those people that have worked long hours here [in Baku] and have to work Tuesday.

"We'll [try to] get them away on Wednesday and Thursday."

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