Alpine has a monumental task ahead of the F1 Monaco GP after both drivers occupied the back of the grid. The leading Alpine driver, Pierre Gasly, will start from 17th, with teammate Franco Colapinto from 18th. The former argued that the lack of pace from the A524 cost them an opportunity to advance to the next qualifying session.
Gasly: We’re just too slow
Gasly tried the mediums at the beginning of qualifying, which did not work out. The Frenchman then switched to the soft, but both sets have similar timing since the car was too slow.
“If I’ve got to be honest, soft-medium is very much the same. The problem we’re having this weekend is we’re just too slow.“
The A524 did not cope well with the bumpy nature of Monaco, and Alpine’s solution failed to fix the problem. Nonetheless, Gasly is happy with the lap he put.
“The car, on all these bumps on the street track like Monaco, is just really not coping well with it.
“Any bump we have, we’re going sideways, and we’ve tried many different things on the setup, but nothing really fixed it. At the end of the day, I’m very happy with the lap I put.“
The 29-year-old said it was a strong lap but was way off from the fastest Q1 car.
“It was a strong lap, but we’re 7 tenths off the fastest in Q1 and we’re P18. It’s just very tight, and overall, the car just hasn’t felt good. It didn’t feel like there was performance based on how it behaved since the start of the weekend.“
Gasly was hoping for a better result after finishing 13th in Imola. A red flag by Kimi Antonelli did not affect Alpine’s Monaco GP qualifying results whatsoever.
“Yeah, I was definitely more hopeful coming here. I think it’s been a bit of an unpleasant surprise. No, honestly [Antonelli’s incident], there’s absolutely no excuse to find anywhere. Today, we’ve just been too slow and others have been more competitive than we showed.“
The slightest margin counts
In Monaco, the slightest margin counts. On paper, two-tenths might not sound a lot, but in the Monaco qualifying session, it can separate almost half of the grid, from ninth to 18th.
“Today, we’ve just been too slow, and others have been more competitive than we showed. You might be talking about 2 tenths, so it’s nothing huge, but unfortunately, those 2 tenths are the difference between P9 and P18. We haven’t been able to really get the car in a good place for this track.”
The mandatory two-stop provides an opportunity
The mandatory two-stop is the talk of the town heading to Monaco. Gasly said on a normal day, the team would just call it quits after starting that low. But this new rule could shake things up, and Alpine has nothing to lose.
“Yeah, [starting] from P18 on a normal format, we’ll probably be going home. But now it’s 2 stops, obviously it’s going to bring more opportunities. Will it change massively? I don’t know, hopefully. But the guys are going to work the numbers.
“From where we are, we’ve got nothing to lose, so I’m sure we’ll try something. But yeah, it’s just painful and I’m just sad for the team, because usually it’s a weekend where we know we’re competitive.
“I know I’m very competitive on this track, [and] I know I’ve always been fast. And yeah, it’s just quite painful to see both of us down the back.“
The grid would be scrambling for the best strategy to abide by the new rule. Gasly said the team needs to be open-minded.
“I think this is one [challenging] situation. But there can be a hundred like that, so it’s not going to be easy, and I think you’ve got to be quite open-minded. Knowing that once you commit to something, it might not turn out to be the best, depending on what others decide to do.“
The drivers may need to come up with a plan themselves, even if it could compromise their race.
“So you can come up with the best plan for yourself if others cover or decide to compromise their race, then they’re eventually going to compromise yours.
“So it’s clearly not the position we wanted to start. But that’s where we are, and we’ll try our best tomorrow.“
Colapinto struggled with slow speed
Gasly’s teammate Colapinto is making his second Alpine outing following a difficult Imola race. The Argentine escaped punishment after failing to obey a red flag during FP3 and qualified 18th for the Monaco GP.
Colapinto used the mediums in qualifying since that is a set he is comfortable with. He mentioned struggling to get the C6 (the softest set) and extracting its grip.
“No, we tried the mediums. Generally, I just felt much more comfortable on the mediums because I really struggled with the C6 to extract the grip, the traction.“
“After T5, I’m just struggling with overheating, and my lap is kind of over since then, when I started to struggle so much on power, and the traction is pretty poor for us. So, just generally really struggling with the slow speed.“
Colapinto optimistic for Sunday despite starting from behind
Colapinto remained optimistic for an opportunity on Sunday despite starting from the back of the grid. While the Monaco weekend has been challenging, Colapinto said he is slowly finding his feet.
“Here is full of low-speed corners, and we didn’t really get it right, I guess this weekend. Lots to work on, but I guess tomorrow, some opportunity with the double pits. It’s not the easiest weekend of all, but slowly I’ve been finding a bit my feet.”
Colapinto’s preference for mediums set him back with the soft tyres, and the team needs to continue working on the car.
“Every time I put the C5, I go backwards with the soft, and it’s just not really giving me the confidence to push when I feel the rears going off and falling apart like that.“
“Just something to understand, try to get better at. I think we still need to work on the car. We still need to work with the team to try and understand what we should have done better for today.“
Expectations, reality, and the game plan
There are still a lot of things to iron out in Colapinto’s side of the Alpine garage. He was hoping for a better result this weekend and in the next rounds.
“Still a lot of things to analyse and try to get better for tomorrow and next weekend. Yes, [it was a bit disappointing as], we were expecting a little bit of a better result with the team.“
“We were thinking we were going to be quite strong. I would say that we weren’t. Just when you don’t get it right and the car is very quick when it’s in the window. This weekend was not, it was a bit out of the window and we really struggled to put it right. So we need to analyse and come back stronger.“
The strategy would be the key to getting Colapinto higher up the ranks. While he can’t say for sure, the team may need to deploy a different strategy for him and Gasly.
“I think it [strategy] will be the key. If we get it right, we’ll probably do a step. So, yes, let’s see.“
“So you kind of have to offset. Well, I guess if we do different things, one can get it right, at least 50% of the chance is [a correct possibility]. Let’s see.“
