Alpine hopes a two-part upgrade planned at the next two races can match the “huge leap” made by Aston Martin.
The French manufacturer has had a mixed start to the new Formula 1 season as they remain mired in the incredibly close midfield pack, though Pierre Gasly did run a strong fifth in Australia before the late chaos.
In contrast, Aston Martin has emerged from that group to challenge Mercedes and Ferrari, with Fernando Alonso finishing third in the opening three races.
“Obviously, Aston has made a huge leap, and we’re the fifth-quickest team, which is not where we want to be,” team boss Otmar Szafnauer said.
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“Our target was to be closer to third place but that isn’t the case at the moment. Actually, it may be, because if you say Mercedes is the third-quickest team, maybe we’re closer to them than we were last year.
“But it’s not good enough. It’s not where we want to be, and I think Aston has caught everyone by surprise by the jump they’ve made.”
In response, Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport claims new parts coming could deliver Alpine a massive six-tenths boost in performance, at least based on the wind tunnel data.
“We too have a decent-size upgrade coming for Baku and then a little bit more only a week later in Miami, so we continue to push the upgrades out,” Szafnauer confirmed.
“I mean, the important thing is that they all work when we put them on the car and we have good correlation with our simulation tools.
“We had good correlation last year and if that continues and if we continue to push the upgrades, we’ll take that development fight over the season to the others around us.”
Such a gain could potentially see Alpine join that battle behind Red Bull, although…
“It’s a game of dependencies, unfortunately,” the American noted. “But we think we can at least keep up with the development pace of Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin.”
The Enstone-based team has also had to deal with the fallout of their two drivers colliding in Australia, creating a hefty damage bill.
“It’s not yet a problem for the cost cap, even though the accident cost us dearly,” the Alpine chief confirmed. “But the accident has shifted the priorities.
“For now, we need spare parts for Baku. There is more jeopardy because it’s a street race and some of the walls are pretty close.
“Like I said the nice thing is we’ve got this three-week break to make some spares in order to be prepared for both the sprint race and the race in Baku.
“We still have to check whether that has an influence on whether we can bring our development package to its full extent in Miami.”