Slightly on back foot: Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon realistic about prospects for 2024 season

Sakhir [Bahrain], February 28 : A changeover to a new vehicle design for 2024 has left drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon realistic about their chances in the early-season races, with the duo admitting the team would be "on the back foot" when the season begins this weekend in Bahrain.
Alpine fell from fourth place in the constructors' standings in 2022 to sixth place in 2023, despite two podium finishes - one for Ocon and one for Gasly. Alpine's management has changed midway through 2023, with previous 'interim' Team Principal Bruno Famin now fully embedded as boss. This has led to a shift in the car concept for this year's A524 in the hopes of restoring Alpine's fortunes. However, the team admits that fully understanding the package will take some time.
"We know we're entering this season slightly on the back foot with the new car concept and the team is working incredibly hard to bring more performance to the car in the coming races," said Ocon, speaking ahead of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix as quoted by Formula 1.
"The test session in Bahrain was extremely valuable and we learned a lot about the new car and its characteristics. The car improved from the first to the last day of testing, so we're hoping to see similar improvements over the course of the race weekend," he added.
"We know what we're working with heading into the opening race of the season, and we must extract the maximum from our package to give us the best possible chance of coming away with something from the weekend," Ocon said.
Teammate Gasly, who missed some track time on the final day of the pre-season test in Bahrain after losing a wheel cover from his A524, agreed with Ocon's calm assessment and said, ""I expect it will take some time for us to unlock the performance we want from the car, but that is no surprise given it's a new concept. I'm remaining realistic. I know it will not be an easy start for us, but what is most important is to keep identifying the key areas of work and to learn and progress."
"There is a lot to learn. I think the good thing is we've identified what we've got to improve on and what priorities to focus on over the next few weeks. It's been very clear with Esteban, we had very similar feedback straight away. And then it's all about analysing whether we can fix these issues with set-ups ahead [of the Bahrain Grand Prix] or whether we need more and bigger upgrades to counter these couple of issues that we can identify already," he went on.
Meanwhile, boosted Alpine's position in the pecking order, leading into the record-breaking 24-race 2024 season.
"We're not at the top, that's one thing we know! But then after, I don't want to make any conclusions now. As I said, it's a new car, there is a lot to understand, there is a lot of performance we will have to find. But right now, to make a claim or any conclusion after this much running would not be fair," Gasly said.