After leaving very good feelings on the last day of preseason and a week later in free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Alpine was crushed by reality after qualifying and the race, however, the internal conclusions seem to be positive.
In qualifying, the French team only managed to get one of its cars into Q3, while in the race both cars managed to finish inside the points zone, with Esteban Ocon seventh and Fernando Alonso ninth. Of course, it should be noted that if it were not for the unexpected double final abandonment of Red Bull and the burning of Gasly’s car, only the French driver would have managed to score a point.
Those from Enstone suffered a lot throughout the race and, especially in the case of Alonso , the tires were a real headache, beyond an Alpine A522 that could not fight with some cars around him.
Despite this, Laurent Rossi , CEO of Alpine , was satisfied with the performance and the results achieved at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the first round of a season that seems to be very promising according to his expectations.
“It has been a fantastic way to start the season for the team, with Esteban and Fernando scoring well deserved points. This is certainly a great achievement, which ultimately is also due to the three basic pillars we have at Enstone, Viry and the team that is on the track.
“This result gives credit to everyone’s work with the A522-RE22 package over the winter and indeed ensures that we have the wherewithal to compete for points.”
“Esteban and Fernando have had great races, there have been a lot of overtaking in general, which is also especially exciting for the spectacle of Formula 1. It was a long and very tough race, with strategy playing a key role,” he added.
After scoring his first points of the course, Rossi acknowledged that the team’s goal is to continue to do so on a regular basis, at least in the coming races.
“We have had a first taste of how exciting the 2022 season could be. We are looking forward to Saudi Arabia. Our goal is to continue to work hard and score points with both cars.”
