Alpine: Aston Martin charge up the grid a 'reality check'

Alpine boss Laurent Rossi says Aston Martin's remarkable progress this season has been a "reality check" for the Enstone squad that has reshaped its perspectives on what can be achieved.

In 2021, Alpine announced a 100-race plan to reach the top of the grid and fight for race wins on merit and for championship glory.

The term of that project implies the French outfit fielding a race-winning car by 2025.

It's interim target of finishing fourth in F1's Constructors' standings in 2022 was fulfilled. Rossi set the same objective for this year but with the stipulation that Alpine must inch closer to F1's trio of front-runners, namely Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari.

However, Aston Martin's unexpected presence among Red Bull's most pressing challengers has set back Alpine's prospects. As the running order currently stands, the French outfit looks set to remain isolated in fifth place in the championship for the remainder of the season.

"It was a reality check for Mercedes, Ferrari, us," Rossi admitted.

"We were comfortable thinking we were on the rise, and everyone else was, and suddenly there is a guy leapfrogging all of us."

For Alpine, a reset of its sporting ambitions for 2023 hasn't been the only consequence of Aston's spectacular step forward. Team Silverstone has also forced Rossi to rethink Alpine's entire approach to realizing its longer-term objectives.

"It's an industry that has been doing more or less the same thing for so long that it's become a norm that it takes that much time to get there. It's true for everything. It's true for road cars," he explained.

"We are trying to change things here. But for that you need to put yourself in a bit of a tricky situation, an uncomfortable situation. If you do that, it works.

"I guess they've [Aston Martin] done it in a more radical way, put themselves in a more uncomfortable situation, to break some barriers, to change a little bit the way they were doing it."

• Read also: Rossi details US investors' contribution to Alpine's F1 plans

Among the changes now being evaluated by Alpine to boost its progress is the reduction of the timeframe required to bring updated components to its A523.

"We can probably accelerate things we thought would be taking seven weeks, three months," he said. "Now we look at it and say: 'Seven weeks - perhaps it's four; three months - perhaps it's two.

"What do we have to believe to get there? People start scratching their heads a bit more thinking: 'Maybe we are being a bit too conservative here, maybe we are doing too many validations, maybe we can shorten the process here and there.'

"You realise that over time you have built so many extra cautious steps because you addressed a problem one day and said to yourself: 'OK, next time we do this all the time.'

"And now you look at it and you are like, with hindsight, maybe this is not necessary anymore."

Rossi conceded that Alpine may need to extend the target date by which it plans to reach a leading position in F1, but that deadline must be set before the sport's 2026 regulation overhaul.

The Frenchman believes that the €200 million investment received by its US investors – part of which will serve to pay down a debt held by parent company Renault – will help hasten its development.

"Whether it is year three [of the plan] or whatever, it might be 120 [races] because the [regulatory] era has been extended by one year and we go until 2025," Rossi explained.

"My goal is by 2025 the Alpine F1 team has the same means as the top teams and is operating in a way that they can put those means to work to become a credible contender for the podium. That's it.

"And we are still going in that direction. We are still hiring, getting equipment and resources and this investment will help us go even faster. That's why I feel we are still on track."

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