'Confident' Alpine 'looking forward' to F1 opener as they plan upgrades for Bahrain GP

Alpine are looking forward to the 2023 F1 season opener this weekend as the team has upgrades planned for the race in Bahrain. The Enstone-based team recently took part in the 2023 pre-season testing in Bahrain, giving Pierre Gasly a chance to adjust to his new car and the team.

Despite the team's disappointing placement on the timing charts in Sakhir, the French team is looking forward to the season opener in Bahrain due to their upgrade schedule.

Technical director Matt Harman claims that the team has a base level of confidence heading into the new season and is satisfied with their results in testing.

Speaking about the team's progress, Alpine director Harman said:

“We have a level of confidence. Of course we do, because we're clearly not running the car at its full potential. I don't like to labor on that too much because I have no idea where the others are running, to be quite honest. We do our analysis, we all know we are looking at each other, and where we are."

"There's a massive level of uncertainty in that. But from our point of view, things are responding as we expected, our aerodynamics are working as we expected."

Alpine hope to bridge the gap to top-three runners in 2023

Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer hopes his team closes the gap on the top three teams in the 2023 season.

While claiming to be happy with P4 in the constructors' title last season, Szafnauer hopes to be closer to the top three teams in times to come. The team accumulated only 14 more points than McLaren but were in a deficit of 342 points to third-place finishers Mercedes.

This year, however, with the help of new driver Pierre Gasly, the team hopes to chip away at the massive points deficit to the top three runners - Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull.

The team recently unveiled their 2023 challenger, the A523, which appeared in two distinctly different liveries ahead of the new season.

Otmar Szafnauer told the media about Alpine's goals for the new season and said:

"A good year for us is being a lot closer to third. There was a big gap between fourth and third last year, [so] being significantly closer to the top three and perhaps a little bit further away from fifth."

"Although we finished fourth, it was a hard-fought year with McLaren – we were only a few points ahead of them by the end. Fourth and fifth were nearly equal on points, and third was a long way away."

It remains to be seen how the Enstone-based outfit fares in the upcoming season, especially with regards to its development strategy.