How Alpine recovered from being stuck 'in a corner'

Alpine’s executive technical director David Sanchez has described the team as being "in a bit of a corner" with its development in the early phases of the 2024 Formula 1 season.

Sanchez was hired by Alpine last May, having worked at the Enstone-based outfit from 2005 to 2007 as a junior aerodynamicist before moving to McLaren and Ferrari, with a brief second stint in Woking early last year.

When Sanchez took up his duties, Alpine was yet to score a point in 2024. A new floor introduced at the Miami Grand Prix brought the A524 down to the weight limit, and other performance improvements led the team to achieve 14 top-ten finishes in grand prix races, including a double podium in Brazil.

“The car was not performing because at the start of the year, it was very heavy, and aerodynamically it was in a bit of a corner,” Sanchez told Autosport in an end-of-season interview at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“So before I joined they had done a very good job on weight-saving. That's for sure. The car was close to the limit again, and we steered completely the direction of aero development.

“The chassis and the weight of the car were one issue, and the aerodynamic characteristics were another issue. So when put together, it didn't give a very good start of the year. The chassis got sorted, the weight got recovered, and now we seem to have recovered most of the aerodynamics.”

Alpine propelled itself to sixth position in the 2024 constructors’ championship, scoring 54 points after the summer break – only the top four teams did better over that period.

Esteban Ocon, Alpine, Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images

However, this does not satiate Sanchez's ambition.

“I think we're coming back to a reasonable level, but it's not... I wouldn't say it's where the team should be, because if you have the people, you have the infrastructure, where are you aiming to be?” the Frenchman mused.

“I think some teams are happy to be, probably, in the midfield. This is not where we'd like to be. We are resourced to be competitive. So for now, let's say we've recovered the bad start of the year. Now we just need to keep going, to continue and keep improving.”