The Sao Paulo GP turned out to be a welcome outlier for Alpine during the 2024 F1 season. Under treacherous driving conditions, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon held their nerves to deliver a double podium for the French team. The result helped them hop past teams like Haas and Williams. Alpine ultimately held on to P6 in the standings to finish a season marred by multiple crises on a positive note.
Much like the 2024 edition of the F1 Sao Paulo GP, not much was expected of Alpine this time around. The team is currently languishing at the bottom of the constructors’ standings. With just 22 points and a 40-point gap to Sauber in P9, Alpine had been searching for points for the last seven Grands Prix. While Gasly, this time paired with Franco Colapinto, failed to reproduce the heroics from 2024, he did break the points deadlock.
Gasly ‘happy’ with one point at F1 Sao Paulo GP
While Alpine was nowhere among the quickest lot, the car gave its drivers enough to fight for points at Interlagos. Taking advantage of the positive uptick in performance, Gasly grabbed both opportunities to score points. He finished P8 in the Sprint to take his first point of the weekend and then another by finishing P10 in the main race.
While the Frenchman rued the failure to convert a good start, he was happy to score a point after seven race weekends.
During the post-Sao Paulo GP media interaction in the print pen, when asked if they could have done anything differently, Gasly replied, “That would be the question to ask tonight. But big picture, we’re happy because the last time we scored points on a Sunday was in Spa before the summer break and it’s been a very long [time]. We’ve been in the middle of nowhere. I must say I was a lot more excited this morning coming into the race knowing that I had a car to race.
“It was a strong weekend, one point in the sprint, one point today. If I’ve got to be honest, I’m a little disappointed with today because we took a great start. Managed to pass [Oliver] Bearman, managed to pass [George] Russell. On both occasions, I’m losing the position in the straights, which would have put us in a much better track position for the rest of the race.
“I managed to dive twice on the inside of [Isack] Hadjar. Every time in the straight to Turn 4, and he could get past me very easily. I feel like I had quite a lot more pace. I’m just not really able to fully show it. At the end, it’s one point. And I’m definitely not going to complain about it because I would have taken it every single day since three months.
“I’m sure we’ll have a look if we could have done anything different. But I do feel we had more pace than we were able to show.”
Gasly refuses to compare this year’s F1 Sao Paulo GP with last year’s
Keeping up with the tradition, the 2024 Sao Paulo GP ran in wet conditions. To add to the chaos, the track conditions never stabilised as the rain took periodic breaks. Resultantly, four drivers failed to finish the race while Nico Hulkenberg faced disqualification.
Ocon and Gasly, however, managed to hold on to their nerves and managed their race excellently. While Ocon finished the race in P2, Gasly finished behind him in third, sharing the podium with Max Verstappen.
The 2025 Sao Paulo GP saw its fair share of chaos, too. However, it wasn’t enough for the new Alpine pairing to make much of it. Therefore, when a journalist asked Gasly if he would compare this year’s result with last year’s, he said:
“It’s very different conditions. But I think my driving this weekend, I was able to drive in a way that I want. The car was responding to what I expect the car to do. And we had a lot more potential. Knowing yesterday to be less than five-tenths [of a second] from the McLaren, knowing the package we had, it just showed there was something.
“We were actually very competitive in the corners. I was pleased the car was responding to my input and there was nothing really very strange. It’s what I expect from a race car, and I think most important from the weekend, obviously. One point is not going to change my life, neither the life of the team, but I think it’s just important in the bigger picture to understand where that entire potential came from and where it was the last few weekends. For sure, it must be track characteristic as well but there is more to it. I think we need to analyse.”
Gasly rues failed tyre strategy gamble
Hülkenberg ran his race on a one-stop strategy and managed his race excellently. The Sauber driver started on a fresh set of medium compound tyres and pitted for a used set of soft compound tyres on Lap 36. The one-stop advantage helped him take P9 from Gasly despite starting in P10.
Gasly, on the other hand, starting in P9, relied on an early safety car or red flag to help his cause. That gamble caused him to start his race on a used set of soft tyres. As those lasted only 18 laps, Gasly was forced to pit for a set of new medium compound tyres. He once again stopped for a used set of medium tyres on Lap 39.
“This is what you do when you’re far off the pace and more trying to bank on the red flag or safety car at some point,” he admitted when explaining the use of starting on a soft compared to hards in recent races where Alpine have had no pace.
“Today I just wanted to use the pace, which unfortunately is not what I was able to do. I think I struggled more on the soft than I thought. Everyone on the soft had quite a lot of deg at the start.
“After I think we fit the new medium on the second stint hoping to go a bit longer. But unfortunately, we got pushed to the box quite early so I did a short stint on the new tyre and a longer one on the used. So it’s quite a few things to look back but it’s one point.”
