Alpine with updates in Azerbaijan: 'Chasing top three'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
French team Alpine have not exactly had the start to the season they expected. Poor results and a double retirement in Australia mean the team has tallied eight points. Has Alpine 'missed the boat' this year or are the results biased? Ahead of the next GP in Baku, the racing team will at least bring a significant update.
Alpine will come out with a major update in Baku. After a revised rear wing in Jeddah and some minor updates in Australia, the team will come to the streets of Azerbaijan with a major update package that should significantly take the car a step forward. For Imola too, according to technical director, Pat Fry, an update package will be brought along to take the step forward.
Alpine want to develop faster
According to team boss Otmar Szafnauer, the team need to take a bigger step than the rest. The ambition is to close the gap towards the first three teams. “Looking towards the future, the gap to third was big. We’ve got to close that gap. But in order to do so, we must develop at a higher rate than any other Formula 1 team out there. Which isn’t easy to do," the American told The Race.
Fry continued: "We’re on average, four or five-tenths off in qualifying that we need to find, not to catch Red Bull but to catch the others. In addition, There are some reasonable mechanical changes that we’ve made for this year that we’re still learning." Fry also touched on the fact that there have been quite a few changes within the team, including the arrival of Pierre Gasly.
Due to the large gap in the calendar, most teams are expected to come up with minor updates in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.