One of the hottest teams down the closing stretch of the 2024 Formula 1 season? That was Alpine. After a slow start a year ago the Enstone-based operation rocketed up the standings in the closing weeks, climbing from the back of the grid to finish sixth in the 2024 Constructors’ Championship race.
However, that strong finish has yet to carry over to the 2025 campaign. As the grid arrives in Japan for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, Alpine is the only team yet to score a point this season.
Still, veteran driver Pierre Gasly says he, and the team, remain “confident” despite the early results.
“No, I think honestly it’s an extremely tight field,” said Gasly at the FIA Press Conference on Thursday. “[W]ithin two tenths you could go from the top of it to the bottom of it. Objectively, we had a very strong Bahrain test. Melbourne, Q3, fighting for points – quite tricky conditions, Safety Cars didn’t play in our hands. And China felt like we didn’t extract everything from the package.
“Nonetheless, still finished 11th, which could have been a P9, but unfortunately with the car being slightly underweight, we didn’t score points. So I think honestly we’re confident,” added Gasly. “It’s only two races. We know what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to focus on ourselves and the work and just execute a strong weekend and we’ll be in the mix. It’s going to be very tight the entire season and we’ll have to make the best out of each single weekend.”
As Gasly noted, he finished in P11 at the Chinese Grand Prix and would have been promoted into the points following disqualifications handed down to Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, were it not for a disqualification of his own after his car came in underweight.
Following the Chinese Grand Prix the team took a long look at their 2025 challenger as well as how they have performed this season, and looking ahead they believe they have the performance from the A525 to fight at the front of the grid.
“I think China, objectively as a team, we slightly underperformed. We realized after the weekend that there were obviously a few things we would have done differently with hindsight,” said Gasly. “That’s why I’m still confident. We’ve got a good package, we’ve got the performance to fight in the top 10. And it’s really about… We’re still early stage in the season, we’re still learning about the car and how to extract everything from it. So it’s good we’ve got three races coming up at different tracks and I’m excited to go racing.”
Gasly also stated that the A525 is a step forward from their 2024 challenger however, he conceded that the entire grid has taken a step forward when compared to a season ago.
“It is a step forward,” said Gasly when asked about this season’s challenger. “Now, everyone made a step forward. If you look at the entire grid, it’s extremely tight. So I think it comes down to fine-tuning the car to every track.
“Within two-tenths, you probably have six or seven positions at the moment. Unfortunately, we didn’t do good enough in China, but we know the reasons why. That’s why I’m fully confident we’ll be in the mix for the coming three races.”
Gasly ended his comments by brushing aside any notion of increased pressure on him or the team, given how strong they ended the 2024 season.
“Absolutely not, because we know exactly why we didn’t get those points,” began Gasly.
“Things could have been very different in Melbourne, with the last Safety Car we were in the points the entire race. We were in the fight in China and there was more performance to come from it.
“So no, I’m confident we’ll get those points. Some other teams have been slightly more fortunate than us, but it’s a long season. We saw it last year – we managed to come back very strongly,” added Gasly. “I believe we’ve got a better car than we had last season and I’m not too worried. “Obviously on paper, it’s nice to see yourself up there straight from the start, but let’s remember there are 24 races.”
