‘Nasty people’ in the paddock keep making the same point about Alpine behind the scenes, journalist Joe Saward says.
Alpine sit bottom of the constructors’ championship after three races as one of the three teams who have yet to score a point, alongside Williams and Sauber.
And Saward, writing in a blog post after the Australian Grand Prix, says this has led to mocking comments elsewhere in the F1 pit lane.
The French manufacturer finished a respectable sixth in last year’s championship with 120 points and two podium finishes.
But Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly started the season as the slowest on the grid in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Both drivers fell in Q1 at the next race in Saudi Arabia too before Gasly retired early on with a gearbox issue.
Ocon secured their first Q2 appearance of the season in Melbourne last weekend but underwent a lengthy pit stop after a visor tear-off got stuck in his brake duct.
He was the last driver to cross the line in 16th, while Gasly could only manage 13th.
Alpine’s ‘100 race’ project mocked
Saward says that some are deriding Alpine for the ‘100-race’ vow they made during the 2021 season.
Back then, the now-deposed CEO Laurent Rossi told the official F1 website the team was aiming for multiple podium finishes in 2024.
The reality, of course, is far more bleak, and as such, the future of Renault’s ownership is in doubt.
“Nasty people keep bringing up the “100 race” project, first devised in 2021,” Saward wrote.
“By the end of this season, the team’s total will hit 90 races, which means that the whole thing looks like a massive cock-up which Renault might wish to move on from.”
Who are Alpine’s investors?
Last year, Alpine received more than £170m in investment from a group that included multiple A-list celebrities and athletes.
Actor Ryan Reynolds, footballer Trent Alexander-Arnold and boxer Anthony Joshua all committed money.
However, they will surely be bitterly disappointed with what they have seen so far this season.
Renault is an iconic team in Formula 1, having won two world championships with Fernando Alonso in the mid-noughties.
The sacking of Rossi heralded an exodus from the team that also saw team principal Otmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane depart.
Szafnauer believes the spate of firings led to instability at the team, which has inevitably had consequences on track.
Alonso, who left the team to join Aston Martin for 2023, also hinted that the upheaval has caused sporting damage.
Former F1 team boss Eddie Jordan feels they will regret how quickly they sacked Szafnauer in particular.
There are still 21 races remaining in F1’s longest-ever season, but there are serious doubts as to whether Alpine can produce the kind of turnaround McLaren did last year.
The post ‘Keep bringing up’: Journalist shares what ‘nasty people’ are now saying about Alpine in the paddock appeared first on F1 Oversteer.