The Expectation for Alpine Entering the Australian Grand Prix
The Alpine Formula One Team have a very interesting situation on their hands. While most teams in their position would struggle to find a driver to take charge in a midfield car, and rack up point, the French team actually have two. Esteban Ocon signed a 3-year contract in June of 2021, while Pierre Gasly, formerly of the Red Bull junior and senior program enters into his first year with the team. After an interest qualifying session in Bahrain, the pace of the car seemed to be unknown. It isn’t uncommon for a driver to struggle in their first timed session in a car, but the pace difference from Gasly and Ocon force us to wonder where the true pace really is, with Ocon finishing Q3 in P9 with a 1:30.984, and Gasly getting knocked out in Q1 with a 1:32.181. It has been in the days since the Williams team had both George Russel and Nicholas Latifi since such a large gap was formed from two teammates, but it was actually Gasly who came home to score points at the end of the race on Sunday with Ocon DNFing from a mechanical failure. It was once again a similar issue when we came to Jeddah with Esteban qualifying P7, and Gasly squeaking into Q3 by only .04 seconds to Hulkenburg in the Haas behind. It was both of the drivers who ended in the points at the end of this race though, P8 and P9. It obviously confusing to see where the real pace of this car is. Is it faster than the Haas and the Alfa Romeo? Is it better suited for a Sunday than a Saturday? Are we seeing from Gasly in his first season with the team what we saw from him during his time with the Red Bull senior team? The expectations are clear. Finish P5 in the constructors championship, but will Hulkenburg finally figure out his problems during the race and begin to chip at that lead, or will Zhou Guanyu finally start to pull his weight? A double points finish is the expectation… or atleast for now.
