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Challenging race for the BWT Alpine F1 Team at the Hungarian Grand Prix
The Hungarian Grand Prix was a challenging race for Alpine. Both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly struggled to finish the race.
Ocon started from 19th and finished 18th. He made up positions early on but then pitted too early, forcing him to pit again later in the race.
Gasly started from the pit lane and was running a promising strategy before retiring due to a hydraulic leak.
Esteban Ocon commented: “It was a disappointing day and weekend overall. Apart from the start and the opening laps - where we made up four places - there is nothing too much to say about the race. We need to sit down and review but looking back we probably pitted too early in the first stint trying the undercut and should have extended. Then we needed to box towards the end as the tyres had no grip left. We have plenty of things to analyse and improve on - operationally, performance-wise and reliability - from this weekend. We need a good reset before Spa next week and try to finish on a positive note before the summer break.”
Pierre Gasly added: “It’s been a frustrating weekend. I started from the Pit Lane after introducing a new battery into my pool of Power Unit components. Our early pace looked promising so we extended the first stint to make up some positions. Our strategy looked like it was going to work out so it feels like we missed a real opportunity as we had to retire the car with a hydraulic leak at the halfway point. It’s a tough end of another challenging weekend for us. We just have to be better and we need to look into our issues and understand why they happen. We move on and we will continue to work on it in order to get on top of these things. We must ensure that we do not repeat these mistakes and come back stronger next weekend in Belgium.”
Bruno Famin, Team Principal: “After yesterday’s compromised Qualifying, we decided strategically to introduce a new battery to Pierre’s Power Unit pool, which meant he started from the Pit Lane. Pierre did a solid job on his first stint to be in sync with the cars who finished close to the points at the end of the race. We had a hydraulic leak and we absolutely need to get rid of these recurring problems. On Esteban’s side, we were in line with the early stoppers but track position is key at this circuit but we were not able to manage the tyres as well as planned. We have an immediate chance to do a much better job in Spa-Francorchamps next weekend where we must target a positive end before the summer break.”
The team are frustrated with the recurring reliability issues and will be looking to improve before the Belgian Grand Prix, taking place from 26th - 28th July.