Alpine scored a single World Championship point via Franco Colapinto during the recent Belgian GP. Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad finished ahead of the Argentinian in P9, bringing both teams level in the constructors’ championship. The final result at Spa exposed the growing problems within the French racing stable. Both Colapinto and teammate Pierre Gasly – who finished eleventh – emphasized afterwards that the car in its current form lacks speed.
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Alpine started the season as one of the strongest midfield teams and crowned that form with a podium finish for Gasly in Monaco. Since then, however, the competition has made great strides, causing Alpine to score points less consistently. Colapinto managed to secure one World Championship point in Belgium thanks to a strong race, but admitted that the result masks the problems with the car. “I’m happy with the point, that’s a very positive result for us,” the Argentinian reacted afterwards. “We are experiencing some problems with the car. The fact that we scored a point under these circumstances at the expense of Audi and Racing Bulls means we have surpassed ourselves.”
‘Not good enough’
Nevertheless, Colapinto made it clear that Alpine urgently needs to find speed. “We need to significantly improve the car, we are currently too slow,” he continued sternly. “Although we made the most of the weekend, it needs to be faster. In some corners, we lost quite a bit of time compared to the competition.” For Gasly, the weekend in Belgium was considerably more difficult. “It started badly, I had no power at the start, so I think I immediately lost two positions.”
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“I managed to regain positions, but unfortunately after a bad pit stop, we were again facing a deficit,” the Frenchman continued, disappointed. He ultimately finished outside the points after an intense duel with Lawson. “Well, a pretty frustrating race. I was behind Liam for a long time, could challenge him, but he overtook me again. That makes it quite difficult. In the end, I finished just outside the points – it’s a bit disappointing. Especially when you look at the differences with the cars ahead of us: Audi, Bortoleto, Lindblad. We are miles away, so we have to work hard on that,” Gasly concluded. When asked how he summarized the weekend, he responded clearly: “It’s not good enough.”
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