One team’s season took another turn for the worse during qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle says.
There were only four drivers eliminated in the first part of qualifying on Saturday with a reduced field.
But Brundle, speaking during Sky’s coverage, says the session compounded the misery team who suffered an early exit.
There were 19 cars running in Melbourne after Alex Albon damaged his Williams beyond short-term repair in practice.
Williams team principal James Vowles opted to run Albon in that car and sideline Logan Sargeant.
Albon made it safely through to Q2, but Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg could only manage 16th.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly came next, with home favourite Daniel Ricciardo down in 18th after he saw his last lap time deleted.
Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu propped up the order, unaware that he’d picked up damage during one of his runs.
Martin Brundle says Alpine have suffered fresh blow
Before qualifying 18th, Alpine’s Gasly drew the attention of race control.
Replays showed that the Frenchman appeared to drift over the pit exit line as he joined the track, which is illegal.
That puts Gasly under investigation and at risk of a grid penalty, which could relegate him to the back of the field.
Brundle said: “It’s going from bad to worse isn’t it for Alpine, currently running 18th and 19th out of the 19 runners, just to put salt in that particular wound.”
Gasly and Ocon enduring miserable season
Alpine are currently bottom of the constructors’ standings as one of four scoreless teams across the first two races.
Gasly’s teammate Esteban Ocon has admitted that the Enstone outfit are dealing with ‘a lot’ of issues they don’t fully understand at present.
After a spate of firings and resignations, including team principal Otmar Szafnauer, one expert says it looks as if the French manufacturer is ‘internally exploding’.
Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan feels they may have made a costly mistake in dismissing Szafnauer.
Fernando Alonso, who raced for the team before is 2022 exit, has also hinted that the personnel turnover is partly to blame for their woes.
Jordan even thinks the team, valued at $1.4bn (£1.1m) by Forbes, could be open to takeover offers heading into 2025.
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