Marcin Budkowski says the Alpine F1 Team will need to work out why they were not as competitive in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix as they had hoped, and they hope they can address the pace issue before the French Grand Prix later this month.
Budkowski, the Executive Director at Alpine, was disappointed to see Esteban Ocon’s afternoon at the Baku City Circuit end after just four laps due to a power unit issue on his A521, while Fernando Alonso was fighting for the minor points for much of the day.
The late race red flag, caused when Max Verstappen’s tyre failed on the start/finish straight, gave Alonso the chance to make some welcome gains in the final two laps, with the Spaniard showing he still has what it takes on track to fight through to sixth.
Budkowski says the points Alonso earned were a good reward for everyone’s hard work at Alpine, but there are definite weaknesses to sort out and solve before they return to the track at the Circuit Paul Ricard next weekend.
“The race didn’t start well with Esteban having to stop with a power unit problem and Fernando’s race pace was not competitive, for which we need to understand the reasons,” said Budkowski. “Overall it wasn’t a great afternoon but we can be glad that the two drivers who had issues were fine and it did give us some exciting action after the restart.
“The heart-warming positive was some Fernando magic to regain four positions and finish P6, which is a great reward for everyone’s hard work. He’s back in a very competitive state and we now need to work together to get back on form at the next race in France.”
