Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft has revealed that Esteban Ocon told him that Alpine are looking ‘slow’ in their early estimations for race pace next season. The French team finished P6 in the Constructors’ Championship last season but were nowhere near McLaren and Aston Martin ahead of them.
Despite both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon making an appearance on the podium in 2023, the season was an overall disappointment. The Enstone-based team ended the campaign with 53 fewer points than they did the year prior and two positions lower as their rivals all made progress.
Alpine’s struggles were exacerbated by the turmoil behind the scenes at the team. Despite fresh investment from a celebrity consortium that included Ryan Reynolds, Rory McIlroy and Anthony Joshua, there was nothing that could mask the managerial friction within the team.
Midway through the year in July, CEO Laurent Rossi was replaced by Philippe Krief, and team principal Ottmar Szafnauer and sporting director Alan Permane were also dismissed after the Belgian Grand Prix. Alpine were then dealt another blow when chief technical officer Pat Fry joined Williams.
Speaking at the Autosport International Show, Croft explained: “So my real hope for this year is that we actually get a Mercedes car that is a bit more on par with the Red Bull,” he told a cheering crowd at ASI24.
“I don’t know how it’s all going behind the scenes, you know, a wheel has not even turned yet at this point. [But] Esteban Ocon said he believes the Alpine is a little bit slow, he told me that before Christmas, but I don’t know who’s in really good shape.”
Despite his optimism regarding a Mercedes comeback, Croft did expect that Red Bull would convert their considerable pace advantage from 2023 into a lead over the rest of the field in 2024. The reigning constructor champions won 21 of the 22 Grands Prix last year.
“I do think going into this year, Red Bull is obviously going to be in decent shape because they’ve just finessed what was superb last year,” he continued. “But then you’ve got Ferrari who says their car is going to be 95 per cent different to last year. So heaven only knows what we’re going get from Ferrari on that one.
“You’ve got Aston Martin who needs to put right what went wrong in the middle part of last year and get back to where they were at the start. Then you’ve got McLaren. McLaren are fantastic – their revival last year was like Lazarus.”
