Alan Permane feels the BWT Alpine F1 Team are showing performance levels closer to that of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team and Scuderia Ferrari so far during the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, but the improvements from the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team has surprised everyone.
Alpine have scored a best finish of eighth across the first two races and sit fifth in the Constructors’ Championship heading into this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, but Aston Martin have scored two podium finishes with Fernando Alonso and are second in the standings, only behind Oracle Red Bull Racing.
Permane, the Sporting Director of the Enstone-based team, says they are not where they want to be with their own pace and performance and wants the team to be fighting for regular podium finishes, but Aston Martin’s jump in pace has caught everyone out.
“It’s not satisfying that we’re not where we want to be in terms of pace,” Permane is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “We want to be a bit quicker than that, up fighting those guys.
“I think we are closer to Ferrari and closer to Merc than were last year. I haven’t really had a good analysis of it yet, but I’m sure we’re closer to Ferrari, because at this time last year, they were fighting for wins.
“Obviously, Aston have made a huge leap, and we’re fifth quickest team, which is not where we want to be. Our target was to be closer to third place. That isn’t the case at the moment. Actually, it may be, because if you say Mercedes is the third quickest team, maybe we’re closer to them than we were last year.
“But it’s not good enough. It’s not where we want to be, and I think Aston have caught everyone by surprise by the jump they’ve made.”
Permane says Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly have been asking for certain improvements with the A523, with braking and traction in particularly being highlighted.
“I suspect it’s a little bit everywhere,” Permane said of where on the A523 needs improvements. “The drivers want a little bit of an improvement in braking, they want some better traction.
“There’s not one real area where they’re really complaining about. We need to improve everywhere, I’m sure.”
Regardless of the updates coming, Permane believes Red Bull are untouchable out front, and believes no one on the grid will be capable of closing the gap to them this season. However, he still hopes Alpine’s updates will help them get even closer to the other teams ahead of them, and perhaps even in front of them.
“It does look like no one’s getting close to Red Bull this year, they look like they’ve got a second a lap in hand honestly,” Permane said. “It’s frustrating.
“We just need to keep working hard and bringing the upgrades and putting the downforce on. Keeping on keeping on, and that worked very well for us last year.
“We brought a lot of stuff last year, we’ve got good correlation. So we can be very confident that parts and upgrades we bring will work the car, we just need to improve it at a faster rate than the others do.”
