Alpine not thinking about constructors’ championship position

Alpine is no longer thinking about its position in the Formula 1 constructors’ championship following a difficult run of races.

The Enstone operation lies sixth in the standings after finishing fourth last year.

The fast-starting Aston Martin has leapt ahead this year while McLaren has recovered ground to overhaul it too.

“We’re not thinking about the championship any more, we just want to get the best possible result every time, taking the races one after the other,” explained interim team principal Bruno Famin,

Alpine has had a turbulent year, recording podiums with Esteban Ocon in Monaco and Pierre Gasly in the Netherlands.

Scoring points consistently has been hard work given the increased competition in the F1 midfield.

At the Belgian Grand Prix, the company parted ways with team boss Otmar Szafnauer and its sporting director Alan Permane.

The rationale given was the pair were not on the same page as the organisation’s senior leadership with regards to the timeline to deliver F1 success.

Former Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi had revealed a 100-race plan during the 2021 season.

That plan outlined how the team would return to the front of the F1 grid but is understood to have been the crux of the disharmony within it.

Since the change in management, one can argue an improvement in on-track results.

In the 15 races to the Belgian Grand Prix the squad averaged five points a race. Since then, it’s averaged seven.

“We made some quite good, quite big changes at the end of July within the team,” Famin said.

“This created a new mindset on the track-side team. I’m quite happy with what I’ve seen so far.

“I think we made some quite good races in terms of strategy execution since that.

“I’m still assessing the factories, both, with the goal to really see how to extract more performance,” he added.

“I think one of the key things is trying to get all the people working together: both sites but also within each of the sites to extract all the potential we have.

“We have a lot of potential, but the difficulty is to put everybody together, everything together, to create more performance, this is what I’m assessing now.”

Along with the factory in Enstone, where the team is housed and the cars prepared, Renault has a facility in Viry-Chatillon in France where the power units are constructed.

Alpine now lies 88 points in arrears of McLaren in the constructors’ championship, having scored just 84 points all season and only 11 from the past three races.