Alpine boss unsure of 'true pace' after poor Bahrain GP race

Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer is still unsure where his team stands on the F1 grid after a poor start to the season in Bahrain. Pierre Gasly finished in P9, while Esteban Ocon picked up three time penalties and eventually retired his car to save the power unit and other parts.

Addressing the team's position on the grid, Szafnauer said Alpine are in the dark about where they stand. He also explained how tough it can be to gauge such a thing when both drivers are far from each other in the race.

Szafnauer said:

"We still don't know its true pace because of some of the operational things that happened in the race. Esteban had all of his issues that we talked about, Pierre was stuck in 19th for quite some time at the beginning."

He added:

"I'm looking at lap times and if you ever watch a race between the guys up front and the guys at the back, [in the same car] you can be two seconds a lap different just because of where you're racing. So, I still don't know where we are relative just because we're out of position with one car and the other car had the problems we talked about. I don't think we're far off."

Alpine were mysteriously anonymous during pre-season testing. Fans and pundits were unable to gauge their potential before the first race weekend. However, it was soon revealed that they were not as quick as everyone had hoped.

Only time will tell how the French team will sail through the 2023 F1 season since wind tunnel upgrades can shift the odds massively.

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Pierre Gasly happy to score points on his first race with Alpine

Though Pierre Gasly and Alpine may be hoping for a much better finish than P9, the Frenchman was happy to score points in the first race with his new team. Starting from the tail of the grid, the 27-year-old drove brilliantly to secure ninth place and score two points.

Gasly summed up his thoughts before and after the race, telling F1 TV:

“I knew starting from the Bahrain city centre, it would be quite an eventful race so I had to stay calm. I knew we had race pace, yesterday [qualifying] it didn’t come together so I had to make up for it today. I was so mad last night. All morning I was so focused, I had these points as my target. The team did a great start, race pace was good, and it was important for the first race with Alpine to get these points.”

Although Alpine did not look strong during the first race of the season, Gasly did an amazing job plowing through the lower midfield pack and securing a top-10 finish.