Sky Sports pundit Anthony Davidson wasn’t a big fan of what he saw from Pierre Gasly’s Alpine during Thursday morning’s pre-season testing session in Bahrain.
All ten Formula 1 teams have just three days of testing in Bahrain to try and get their cars ready for the upcoming season, which wasn’t helped by the red flag shown at the end of Thursday morning’s session.
Speaking on commentary for Sky Sports F1, Davidson was unsure the Frenchman would be happy with how the A524 is handling right now.
Anthony Davidson unimpressed with Gasly’s Alpine in Bahrain testing
In years gone by, teams would be able to spend weeks on track before the opening race of the season trying to perfect their cars.
It meant teams could work out the kinks in their new cars quickly, albeit in an era where reliability was a much bigger issue.
Unfortunately, nine teams have turned up in Bahrain and seen how much of a step forward Red Bull have taken after the most dominant season in the sport’s history.
What’s more chilling is they’re likely hiding some of their performance as well, although their rivals won’t be driving at 100% either.
However, Davidson is slightly concerned for Pierre Gasly after watching one of his runs in testing in Bahrain on Thursday morning.
Alpine fell down the standings in 2023 after Aston Martin made impressive strides forward.
There are worries about their power unit and those haven’t been completely alleviated over the winter despite small improvements.
They need to improve the driveability of the car if they want to compete further up the grid in 2024.
Alpine star Gasly has important 2024 ahead of him
Watching the 28-year-old in action, Davidson said: “I tell you what wasn’t pretty, watching that Alpine. [He’s] really struggling out there.
“He went wide at turn four, plenty of understeers there and then the car snapped on him a lot through turn six, seven.
“It’s hard to slow the car into turn 10 and he was really wrestling that thing the whole way round.
“He’s in P4 at the moment but the position where he lies at the moment and the lap time doesn’t reflect what I saw and what he felt with the balance of that car.
“It looked like it was going to turn in quite nicely for him at one point and he had it well-balanced, and then it just began to understeer unexpectedly. He got onto the marbles, he got on the dust and then you’re well off the circuit at that point.
“And then it squirmed in turns six and seven because he had a lot of dust on the tyres to be fair, but still, it doesn’t look like they’ve got the car quite dialled in yet.”
Gasly is out of contract at the end of 2024 and based purely on his experiences in testing in Bahrain as Davidson alludes to, he’s unlikely to be sold on extending his deal with the French team.
He’s one of the fastest drivers who will be available in the market, although Carlos Sainz’s situation at Ferrari is likely to be the first domino that falls when it comes to any movements.
Alpine are unconvinced about keeping both of their current drivers and will be playing the market as well.
Everyone has something to play for and the opening races could play a key part in their long-term futures.
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