Pierre Gasly has acknowledged the leading teams in Formula 1 remained in “another league” compared to the rest in 2024, despite the late resurgence that Alpine sustained.
Alpine endured a disastrous beginning to the previous season as an underdeveloped car concept consigned it to not scoring a single point across the opening five rounds.
But while it remained stranded in ninth place come the autumn break, Alpine introduced upgrades in Austin which turned its A524 into a consistent points-scoring package.
The Enstone-based squad amassed 52 points in the closing six events, including a surprise double podium in the wet in Brazil, to climb to sixth place in the championship.
Gasly, who was inside the top 10 four times during that run, hailed how Alpine managed to rebound from its earlier-season woes to be in a stronger position going into 2025.
“I would say it was a very disappointing start of the season,” Gasly told media including Motorsport Week. “We expected it.
“We had a rough winter, didn’t manage to get the car in the place we wanted to start in Bahrain.
“But once you get the tools you have at the start of the year, you’ve got to work your best way with it.
“And I must have been very impressed with the team in the way they’ve managed to turn things around.
“The understanding, spotting where [are] the limitations of the car, finding solutions to it. And I must say I’m definitely more confident than ever into going to ‘25 with a clear idea of where we’re heading, the changes we’re going to make.
“I definitely believe the car is going to be in a much better place to start with. And yeah, it just brings confidence to all of us.”
Gasly hails Alpine changes
Alpine underwent several changes in senior positions in response to the squad’s catastrophic start, with Technical Director Matt Harman among those who departed.
David Sanchez was installed as Harman’s replacement in a revised structure, while Flavio Briatore returned as an Advisor and Oliver Oakes was appointed team boss.
“So there have been a lot of changes,” Gasly highlighted. “I think a lot of positive changes internally, which are not very obvious from the outside.
“But I think we’re shaping up a much better team start of ‘25 compared to where we were a couple of months ago.”
Alpine has huge gap to bridge
Gasly, though, has indicated that Alpine can’t expect to bridge the colossal gap that still exists to the top teams in the final campaign under the current regulations.
Aston Martin held onto fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship, but the Silverstone-based squad languished a gargantuan 374 points behind Mercedes above.
Asked whether the foundations are there to progress even more this season, Gasly replied: “Yeah, I mean, there’s still big, big work ahead.
“You know, like looking at the top four, it still feels like they are in a different league, especially come race day.
“But it will be definitely starting, hoping, to close that gap and hopefully see us able to fight more consistently in the top 10 and hopefully in the top five on some occasions.”
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