When at the end of 2020 the Alpine team announced the signing of Fernando AlonsoThey talked about a 100-race plan to become Formula 1 champions again. A plan that began then and now seems to have been delayed because the team did not start counting those 100 races until relatively recently.
Your boss, otmar szafnauernow says that there are still more or less 80 remaining from that plan of 100 races: “We have to take one more step to be able to win a championship, which is what we want to achieve in 100 races.”
“And I think we’re now less than 80. Those 100 started at the beginning of the year. So it’s less than 80 as of now,” says Alpine’s Romanian boss.
“We have to do the same, but be closer to third. We have to be closer to third than fifth. So even if we’re still fourth, we have to progress,” Szafnauer stressed.
Therefore, it is clear that that plan of 100 races did not start with the signing of Alonso just as they sold in the french teamwith which Alonso had been champion in 2005 and 2006 (under the Renault brand).
A disappointment that surely has also taken Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman, who finished ahead of Alonso in the drivers’ standings, has not stopped puffing up his chest after defeating the two-time champion. All this despite the fact that team leaders and drivers agree that the Spaniard was superior.
A 2022 in which almost all mechanical problems concentrated in car 14. Something that Alonso denounced on several occasions. The engine was a huge headache. And Alpine wants to change it: “From an overall engine point of view, we can make those changes to get better reliability, although some of the problems we had weren’t really with the powertrain, but with the ancillaries. But we have to redesign and fix it.”
“I think we can improve, and I have full confidence that we will, I think we will add more points”, says the one who will be the new head of Pierre Gasley from this course.
