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‘There is a lot of work ahead of us’ says Gasly after Alpine fall back in Italian Grand Prix
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Alpine saw a reversal in their fortunes at the Italian Grand Prix just days after scoring points in Zandvoort, with Pierre Gasly admitting that the team have “a lot of work ahead” to understand the issues following his drive to P15.
Having lined up in 14th on the grid – one spot ahead of team mate Esteban Ocon – Gasly struggled with the brake issues that had affected his car on qualifying day at Monza, resulting in him letting Ocon through and crossing the line in 15th place on a day where he also had contact with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
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Reflecting on his race, Gasly conceded: “It was a very long afternoon. I’m very disappointed because I thought that somehow in the race things will get better compared to yesterday, and it was actually worse.
“We had some brake issues yesterday we found out after quali, which carried on this afternoon. The car was bouncing a lot and we just had no grip out there. We finished 30 seconds I think from the top 10, which is not good.
'A lot to review' for Pierre Gasly and Alpine after finishing P15
“There is a lot of work ahead of us to understand why… Last week at a very different track we had some pace to fight there, today it was impossible, so [I’m] pretty disappointed.”
Pushed on whether there were any early indications of why the performance level had changed so much, Gasly answered: “The brakes, we’ve got to fix that because especially on a track like that it makes it very, very hard.
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“Bouncing, we didn’t have much in the last few events and we had a lot here. Obviously it’s a very specific track with the rear wing we’re running, so a lot to review.”
Ocon, meanwhile, ran a different strategy to his team mate but his day did not prove much more fruitful, with a final result of P14. The Frenchman later acknowledged that the squad had attempted different things on what was a tough weekend throughout.
“We tried everything this weekend,” said Ocon. “In qualifying we tried to qualify with the new or used tyre – we tried both. Today in the race we tried a reverse strategy, I managed to stay on the one-stop, on the other side Pierre did a different one.
Esteban Ocon comments on his P14 finish in the 2024 Italian Grand Prix
“So we need to have a proper look on exactly what was best on the hard tyre to be doing, maybe it was something different. Maybe we should have started on the medium and then gone on the hard and try and hang on there.
“We covered all the ground and unfortunately it was not enough today. We go again next week in Baku and we try to get more results.”
READ MORE: Oakes opens up on 'big task' at Alpine after taking on 'dream' team boss role
In terms of whether there are any positives for Alpine to take from the event, Ocon suggested that there were some noteworthy changes earlier in the weekend.
“I think the positive definitely was the turnover in terms of car performance from Friday to Saturday, which has been very positive,” he explained. “But we haven’t pointed out exactly what it is, so we need to be on top of [that] before we get to Baku.”
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