Alpine have made clear progress in recent races after a miserable start to 2024. Having been the slowest team on the grid in Bahrain, they’re now regularly in the mix for points.
The Enstone outfit didn’t get off the mark until the sixth race of the season in Miami, where Esteban Ocon finished 10th. Pierre Gasly repeated that result in Monaco before the team earned their first double-points finish of the campaign in Canada.
They repeated that feat in Barcelona a fortnight later, and Gasly then extended their scoring streak to four races by taking P10 in Austria last weekend. They did, however, lose a spot in the constructors’ standings to Haas.
Nico Hulkenberg was one of the standout drivers of the day as he beat Red Bull driver to Sergio Perez to sixth. Kevin Magnussen was close behind in eighth, securing a huge haul for the American outfit.
Alpine will arrive at Silverstone, just 30 miles or so from their Enstone base, eighth in the table. Haas are 10 clear (19), with RB a further 11 up the road (30).
Bruno Famin’s team will be hopeful of leapfrogging both and repeating their sixth-place finish from last year. They will have the assistance of F1 veteran Flavio Briatore, who’s just arrived as a special advisor to Renault CEO Luca de Meo.
Flavio Briatore critical of Aston Martin amid Fernando Alonso ties
In conjunction with his new role at Alpine, Briatore continues to serve as the manager of Fernando Alonso. Their relationship extends back to the mid-2000s, when the Italian helped him win back-to-back world championships at Renault.
Briatore and Alonso negotiated a return to F1 with Alpine in 2021. However, the Spaniard decided to abandon that project after just two years and return to Aston Martin.
There were signs of promise in 2023 as Alonso scored eight podiums and finished fourth in the championship – his best showing since 2013. The problem was that Aston couldn’t keep up with the development of the traditional frontrunners over the full season.
And there are signs that this cycle may be repeating itself. Lawrence Stroll’s team started the year on the heels of Mercedes, but they’ve now failed to score points in three of the past four races.
Speaking to La Politica Nel Pallone, Briatore was intensely critical of Alpine’s rivals. He says there’s no reason why they should be beating them given the difference in investment.
“Alonso is at Aston [Martin], where they made a bunch of unbelievable mistakes,” he said. “Big investments, let’s hope they have a new car from Hungary, they made a bunch of mistakes.
“We with Alpine are in the points almost every Sunday because Aston Martin is not where it should be. Realistically we should be eleventh and twelfth, every time we get in the points it’s because Alpine is better than Aston Martin right now.”
Alonso now nearing race ban after Austrian Grand Prix incident
While he wasn’t quite the nearest challenger to Max Verstappen as he was in early 2023, Alonso still started the year firmly at the sharp end. He qualified in the top six at four of the first five races and left the Chinese Grand Prix between the two Mercedes in the world championship.
But the development race has proved to be Aston’s undoing again. Stroll senior got ‘pretty loud’ behind the scenes at Imola when a much-anticipated upgrade failed to deliver.
The Canadian is determined to make Aston Martin a race-winning, and eventually championship-winning team. That’s why he’s signed former Mercedes engine mastermind Andy Cowell and Ferrari technical director Enrico Cardile.
But at this stage, it feels as if they are further than ever from where they want to be. Sky F1 pundit Martin Brundle has been left asking ‘what is going on’ right now.
To make matters worse for Alonso, he’s in a precarious position for penalty points. After colliding with Zhou Guanyu in Austria, he’ll have at least eight to his name until next March, putting him just four away from the race-ban threshold.
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