Alpine F1 2024 concept change was the right choice despite struggles

Pierre Gasly says he understands and supports Alpine’s decision to completely revamp its F1 car concept this year despite a disappointing campaign so far.

Before undergoing a major technical reshuffle in recent months, Alpine chose not to develop the main ideas of the A523 any further in an attempt to open up a new avenue offering greater scope for development with this year’s A524.

Fourth in the constructors’ championship in 2022, the Enstone-based team slipped to sixth place last year.

But after the first half of the season, the results have left Alpine with only 11 points scored and in a very distant eighth place in the championship.

But Gasly continues to believe that the decision taken at the time was justified.

“I think it’s performance-related. Last year the team felt that it got to the end of the development with their car concept,” Gasly told Autosport.

“As we missed our targets, they’re like, ‘do we want to go for another year where we know we’ll probably be stuck to where we are?’ And they said, we want more than that, so, we’ll try something else.

“Which to me, I think was the right choice. We’re not in Formula 1 to be satisfied with the sixth place in the constructors’.”

Alpine’s hopes have been dashed and, for the time being, even Haas’ seventh place seems illusory.

However, Gasly is counting on the work done at Enstone and on the margin for improvement to do better in the months to come and, above all, to have a more solid base when it comes to 2025.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t pay out with the directions that you know they took with the car concept we have this year, but nonetheless, I still think the way the team’s operating is at a better level than when I arrived,” he said.

“So, it’s a matter of bringing that performance onto the car, which is obviously not easy, but I know we’ve got good directions already for next season, which will put us in a better place and with the sort and processes and the people and what they’ve built and kept working, I can feel that there’ll be something good coming out of it.”