A victory in Hungary, but Alpine remains critical

After years of waiting Alpine finally managed to win again in 2021. Esteban Ocon triumphed in Hungary in a race full of incidents. For many teams in the middle of the pack, that one win would have made the season a great success. At Alpine they are a bit more critical.

Minimum

Despite Fernando Alonso's podium finish in Qatar and Esteban Ocon's victory in Hungary, Alpine finished fifth place in the Constructors' Championship, well behind P4 McLaren (120 points). Laurent Rossi, CEO of Alpine is not very happy when he looks back at the past year. Speaking to AutoHebdo he looked back at the past year. "Fifth in the championship was the minimum we had to achieve," he said.

Satisfaction is felt by Rossi mainly on another front. The CEO feels that there is a clear improvement in the operational area. Moreover, as the season progressed, the French understood the car better and better."At the beginning of the season we didn't know how to get the tires right, and we had mechanical and aerodynamic balance problems. Now we know before a race what set-up to use. "

Traction problem

Although Ocon won before the summer break, Rossi believes the sporting progression started from the - unraced - Belgian Grand Prix . This is because Alpine has understood the car better since then. The biggest problem was that the car had a traction problem. That in the races in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi Alpine performed well was also due to the traction. "The asphalt (at these races) promotes traction and so we could concentrate on the rest," Rossi said.