Pierre Gasly is expecting a sluggish start to Alpine’s 2024 F1 campaign as the Enstone squad works to understand the intricacies of its all-new A524.
Following a disappointing sixth-place finish in F1’s 2023 Constructors' Championship, Alpine is taking a bold gamble with its 2024 challenger.
Technical Director Matt Harman revealed on Wednesday at the car’s presentation a complete design overhaul, a "revolution" that goes "front to back," aiming to escape the performance limitations of their previous car.
The extent of the changes is significant. The chassis is entirely new, the rear suspension has been redesigned, and the floor, a crucial aerodynamic element, undergoes extensive development.
These revisions signal Alpine's commitment to innovation and their willingness to break free from traditional design constraints.
But the aggressive approach has led Gasly and teammate Esteban Ocon to expect teething issues that will need to be ironed out in the early part of the season.
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However, Gasly stands firmly behind the team's decision to field an all-new contender, emphasizing the need for "risks" to achieve "bigger rewards," suggesting that staying safe with incremental improvements wouldn't propel them toward their podium aspirations.
“I think it’s a complete new concept which was driven by a lack of performance last year from the car we had and it’s just coming to the conclusion that we were kind of plateauing and could not really unlock more potential from the concept we had,” Gasly explained.
“So it started from a brand new page and we were inspired with some of our learnings and some of our competitions.
“I think we’ve got to be open-minded. We know when we come with a new concept, it obviously comes with a lot of challenges. So we’ve got to be patient.
“We know the start of the year might not be as good as we like. We’ve just got to be aware of that and then try to unlock that potential that we believe these cars have as fast as possible.”
Assessing the changes, Gasly insists that it will be the A524’s overall package that will boost Alpine’s performance and ranking rather than a specific design elements or component.
“I’ve seen it all and it’s a big change,” added the Frenchman. “It’s a big change from front wings, suspensions, bodywork, the old package, the PU package and how integrated it is inside the car, the chassis itself.
“There is not one single piece that is going to be the magic trick, but it’s all together and I’m really looking forward to see what it gives.
“As Matt said, the only thing that remains from last year is the steering wheel. So when you start from a blank piece of paper, from scratch basically, there’s always more risk.
“But then, you’ve got to take risk at some point if you want to get bigger rewards, so that’s the strategy we decided to go for.”
Alpine technical director Matt Harman.
An evolution of a previous iteration would have resulted in a design refined in part by the feedback provided by Alpine’s drivers.
But in the case of a wholesale change of concept, Gasly and Ocon’s input was limited according to the former.
“Unfortunately, I don’t think we had much impact on that,” the Frenchman said. “It was a complete new concept, so we didn’t have much impact with Esteban.
“It’s constant feedback about what we want, what we need in the car to go faster, but based on last year’s car, this is a completely different concept, so they kind of get an idea of what car behaviour we want.
“But when you start from scratch like that, there’s so much unknowns that I think all basically come into play once we test the car in Bahrain and tell them what we need, what are the weaknesses, what are the strengths of that car and what they’re going to work on.”
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