Davide Brivio, the recently appointed Racing Director of the Alpine F1 Team, says there is plenty of work to do by the team to be ready for Saturday’s running at the Bahrain International Circuit after a testing opening day on Friday.
Neither the returning Fernando Alonso nor team-mate Esteban Ocon were able to break into the top ten in either practice session on Friday, although the morning session was heavily focused on testing different aerodynamic settings rather than going for outright pace.
The afternoon saw improvements but Ocon’s best was only good enough for eleventh, while Alonso’s time saw him down in fifteenth, not what Alpine were hoping for heading into the new season.
Brivio says it is important now for Alpine to analyse what they’ve learned on the first day of the season so they can go into Saturday’s final practice session and Qualifying hour with a more competitive car.
“We did quite a lot of work today,” said Brivio. “For FP1, we tried some different settings on the car and then, this evening, the team did a good job and we were able to improve the balance of the car. I think we made a step in the second session and we improved our pace.
“Now it’s time for us to analyse what we’ve done and identify the areas where we can make further improvements. We will keep looking forward as a team and continue to work. The aim is to make another further step for tomorrow’s practice and get ready ahead of qualifying.”
