"I don’t think we look great" - Pierre Gasly makes somber admission about Alpine ahead of the 2024 F1 season

Alpine F1 driver Pierre Gasly has claimed that the team's car isn't at its best ahead of the 2024 season after a disappointing pre-season testing in Bahrain. However, he expressed hope in being able to figure a few things out prior to the season's first race.

The French team had one of the least impressive cars during the three days of testing. It failed to leave a mark with its A524 in pre-season testing which was held one week ahead of the first race of the 2024 season.

Speaking with Sky TV, Pierre Gasly spoke about the challenges in front of the Alpine F1 team heading into the opening race and their expectations from the weekend. He said (via Motorsport.com):

"To be fair I haven't really focussed on others because there's been so much going on our side. I don't think we look great. But at the same time, we still have a couple of days to really understand everything we've done. We've put the car upside down, and done a lot of tests. So hopefully, some analysis and answers will bring us some more performance.

"And then, we'll find out, no one will hide anymore next Friday. But I think we'll have to be patient, even if it's not what we like as drivers, but clearly, it might take some time before we really unlock the performance we want from that car."

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Pierre Gasly previews the opening race of the season for Alpine

Pierre Gasly acknowledged that Alpine were on the back foot ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix next weekend and won't start the season as they would have liked. The Frenchman pointed out that the team was aware of its weaknesses and will work on its new concept. He said (as quoted by the aforementioned source):

"It's not going to be an easy first race. We're not going to start from where we would have liked. But at the same time, we've got to give ourselves some time to understand that new car concept that we have.

"The good thing is we've identified very clearly what we've got to work on as a team. Now, whether we're able to fix it with car setup or not, for the first few races of the season, time will tell, but for sure there'll be an aggressive plan of upgrades which we will need to close the gap."