Bernie Collins has admitted the Sky Sports pundit finds what Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have both been sharing about the Alpine Formula 1 team to be ‘a bit worrying’.
It has been a tense and, at times, chaotic few weeks at Alpine since Ocon and Gasly collided in the Monaco GP. The Enstone squad have announced that the former will leave at the end of this year when Ocon’s contract lapses. Alpine have also given Gasly a new multi-year deal.
Groupe Renault CEO Luca de Meo has also appointed Flavio Briatore as an executive adviser to the Alpine team. He will now help team principal Bruno Famin to locate Ocon’s successor, with Ferrari exile Carlos Sainz one candidate for Alpine who may also promote Jack Doohan.
Bernie Collins finds Alpine’s question marks over their pace ‘worrying’
All the while drama unfolds behind the scenes at Enstone, there has also been the Canadian GP, Spanish GP and now the Austrian GP. But Gasly divulged Alpine’s pace at the Spanish GP was ‘a bit of a surprise’ for the team as they ‘didn’t really expect’ to be strong in Montmelo.
Ocon also suggested Alpine’s speed at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya was ‘unexpected’ and confessed the team did not know why. Gasly qualified in P7 with Ocon in P9 and ended the race in P9 and P10. Ocon and Gasly even qualified in P8 and P9 for the Sprint in Austria.
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But Collins finds it worrying that Gasly admitted that Alpine ‘need to understand’ why their car suited the Spanish GP. The former head of strategy for Aston Martin fears the questions surrounding Alpine’s performance in Spain create doubts about their future upgrades, too.
“Yes, it is a worry,” Collins told Sky Sports F1 (29/6, 10:21) at the Austrian GP. “When a team tells you they don’t know the problem or the solution, that’s a worry.
“And how do you keep that [progress] going forward? They have had good results in the last two weekends, let’s say. But these tracks are a bit different in that there’s more high-speed [corners], that’s where the lap time comes. The rest of it is on throttle in a straight line.
“So, can they carry that – Silverstone will be a very similar track – but further into the year? And if they don’t understand that, it’s a bit worrying for any upgrades they bring onboard.”
Alpine went from the slowest car on the grid to back-to-back double-point finishes
Alpine started the 2024 Formula 1 season with the slowest car on the grid, which even saw technical director Matt Harman and head of aerodynamics Dirk de Beer resign. Harman had also stated earlier that Alpine were ‘aggressive’ with redesigning their car from last season.
But the changes Alpine introduced made an overweight car that also lacked downforce. The Enstone squad even did not score a point before Ocon took P10 in the Miami GP and Gasly finished the Monaco GP in P10. Yet Ocon got back-to-back P10s in Canada and Spain since.
Gasly even scored points in the Canadian GP and Spanish GP to deliver Alpine two double-point finishes. But Alpine are still trying to fathom why their upgrades have paid off so much since introducing their lighter chassis and a new floor, giving Bernie concerns going forward.
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