Pierre Gasly on Alpine’s ‘something else’ decision with ‘missed targets’ verdict

Despite being off the pace this season, Pierre Gasly has defended Alpine’s decision to introduce a new concept as the team had to “try something else”.

Sixth last season in no man’s land in the Constructors’ Championship, Alpine opted to scrap the A523 and instead focusing on putting an all-new A524 on the track.

Pierre Gasly defends Alpine trying ‘something else’

Revealing the car in February, Alpine called it a “brand-new concept” and one marked by “innovative solutions as a result of learnings from previous iterations.

“The bold approach will allow the team to apply a stronger development path across the next two campaigns before the radical change in technical regulations following that.”

The car though fell short of expectations, partially because it was overweight in the early rounds of the championship.

Reportedly double digits over the minimum weight of 798kg, neither Gasly nor his team-mate Esteban Ocon scored a single point in the first five rounds as the team focused on dropping weight rather than developing the car.

A single point in China marked a turning point for the team who went on to score five times in eight races to bring their tally to 11. But that’s a long way off last year’s 120 points in total.

Gasly though has defended the decision as he says the team had to “try something” as they weren’t satisfied with a distant P6.

The Alpine team-mates’ 2024 F1 head-to-head stats

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“I think it’s performance-related. Last year the team felt that it got to the end of the development with their car concept,” he told Motorsport.com .

“As we missed our targets, they’re like, ‘do we want to go for another year where we know we’ll probably be stuck to where we are?’ And they said, we want more than that, so, we’ll try something else.

“Which to me, I think was the right choice. We’re not in Formula 1 to be satisfied with the sixth place in the Constructors’.”

But while he accepts the new concept has not paid dividends, the 28-year-old believes Alpine are making strides forward.

“Unfortunately, it didn’t pay out with the directions that you know they took with the car concept we have this year, but nonetheless, I still think the way the team’s operating is at a better level than when I arrived,” he said.

“So, it’s a matter of bringing that performance onto the car, which is obviously not easy, but I know we’ve got good directions already for next season, which will put us in a better place and with the sort and processes and the people and what they’ve built and kept working, I can feel that there’ll be something good coming out of it.”

Gasly will continue with Alpine next season having signed a “new multi-year contract” that could see him running Mercedes power in 2026 with Renault abandoning their engine project and Alpine set to become a customer team.

Read next: Follow PlanetF1.com’s WhatsApp channel for all the F1 breaking news!