BWT Alpine F1 Team endured a frustrating Sunday afternoon in Monza as Pierre Gasly finished fifteenth in the Italian Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon retiring from the race.

 

 

In a circuit that does not play to the team’s strengths of its overall car package, and after a difficult Qualifying with both cars out in Q1 on Saturday, today’s race proved to be an uphill task for the team to salvage something for the weekend.

 

 

After an aborted start and short delay to the race due to Yuki Tsunoda’s formation lap retirement, both drivers looked to make gains on the opening lap; Esteban passing Pierre into Turn 3 to progress a position.

 

 

On a two-stop, Medium-Hard-Medium strategy, Pierre could not advance further than fifteenth at the chequered flag. Esteban attempted a one-stop Medium to Hard plan but retired from the race after some steering vibrations with the team opting to bring him in as a precaution.

 

 

The team remains in Monza for this week’s Pirelli Tyre Test – Esteban driving on Tuesday and Pierre on Wednesday - before focus switches to the Singapore Grand Prix in a fortnight’s time.

 

 

Race


Esteban started on New Mediums (L25 pit-stop for New Hards). Fastest Lap: 1:26.963
Pierre started on New Mediums (L11 pit-stop for New Hards, L31 pit-stop for Mediums). Fastest Lap: 1:25.758

 

 

Esteban Ocon, started P18, DNF: “A tough weekend for us with a tough ending. Unfortunately, we had to retire the car as a precaution after feeling some steering wheel lock early on in the race. It’s definitely been a big weekend of learning for us on what has been a difficult track since the first session on Friday. Now it’s time to really look into the reasons why we could not really perform here and then quickly move on to Singapore. I have no doubt we will come back stronger and return to points-scoring form.”

 

 

Pierre Gasly, started P17, finished P15: “It’s not been our weekend, that is for sure, and it’s always a disappointing feeling when you leave without scoring points. We were simply not fast enough at this circuit to have any success and, of course, we will take this as a big learning going forwards and to see what we can do better next time on this type of track. We gave it our all out there today but fifteenth place seemed to be our maximum. We have a lot of work ahead and I’m definitely looking forward to Singapore for the next race. I’m sure we can be more competitive at the next run of Grands Prix.”

 

 

Bruno Famin, Interim Team Principal: “After the high of Zandvoort exactly one week ago, we leave Monza on the back of a very difficult result and general performance level. We entered the weekend knowing it was going to be a challenge given the nature of the track, and that proved to be the case. As a team, it has certainly been a weekend full of learning, of which we can take forwards to future events on circuits with a similar configuration to here in Monza. On that front, we can remain positive and as a team we will regroup ahead of the next race in Singapore.”