Pierre Gasly is adamant that Alpine made “the right choice” to overhaul its car concept for the 2024 Formula 1 season despite enduring an underwhelming campaign.
Having hit a ceiling with its previous philosophy and slipped two spots to sixth in the standings last term, Alpine opted to commit to a complete revamp with its A524.
But while it warned that it would be on the back foot as it bid to understand its revised package in the nascent races, Alpine didn’t expect to end up slowest in Bahrain.
The Enstone-based squad’s prospects haven’t improved much since as it languishes down in eighth in the Constructors’ Championship with 11 points from 14 events.
However, Gasly has insisted that Alpine made the correct call to adopt a change in development direction in response to the discontent over where it placed last term.
“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 appears destined to end the season down in a disappointing eighth position as seventh-placed Haas reside 16 points clear with a more competitive VF-24 car.
But Gasly, who has renewed with Alpine, is optimistic that the work behind put in behind the scenes at the Anglo-French marque should inspire a much greater 2025.
“Unfortunately, it didn’t pay out with the directions that you know they took with the car concept we have this year,” the Frenchman acknowledged.
“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.”
