Franco Colapinto finished 10th at Spa-Francorchamps, ensuring that Alpine did not lose too much ground in their fight with Racing Bulls to top the midfield. But while the Argentine racer was pleased to finish in the points, neither he nor team mate Pierre Gasly were too impressed with their current package.
Alpine started the year in very strong form and were the pick of the midfield teams in the earlier rounds. Their success culminated in a podium for Gasly in Monaco, but since then the team’s pace has trailed off somewhat as their rivals have brought upgrades.
Those upgrades have enabled Racing Bulls to close the gap in the Championship fight, with the two teams now tied on 61 points.
“Happy with the point, of course it’s been very positive with us. We are struggling a little bit with the car, and to score a point in these conditions and be in front of an Audi and a [Racing Bulls car], it is more than what we [thought we] can do, so of course happy with that,” explained Colapinto after the race.
“We need to improve the car a lot, we are too slow at the moment. Even though we maximised the weekend with a good Quali and a good race, the car needs to be quicker and we are just losing quite a lot of lap time in some corners compared to the Audis and the [Racing Bulls’].”
Colapinto finished behind Gabriel Bortoleto and Arvid Lindblad, but he did at least manage to beat Liam Lawson, which ended Racing Bulls’ streak of scoring with both cars. Colapinto’s afternoon was made by a strong start, and from there he was able to battle hard all race long.
It was a hard-fought point, with Colapinto crossing the line 0.9s ahead of his team mate, and just 1.4s clear of Lawson.
But while he could at least leave Belgium with the positive feeling from scoring, the same could not be said of his team mate. Gasly scored in the first seven Grands Prix this season, but has picked up just one point from the last three rounds.
He crashed on Friday at Spa, and then his race nearly did not start at all when he struggled to get off the line for the Formation Lap.
“It started badly, I had no power at the start so I think I lost two positions. Managed to make it back, unfortunately after we had a poor stop which put us back again, trying to fight back…” said the Frenchman of his afternoon.
“Quite a frustrating race, stuck behind Liam [Lawson] for quite a long time, battling, passing, him passing me back which was quite tricky. Yeah, unfortunately at the end we lost out and just finished outside the points which was a bit disappointing.
“Especially looking at the gaps with the cars ahead, Audi, Bortoleto, Lindblad, we are miles off, so we need to work.”
When asked what he could take away from the weekend as a whole, Gasly was succinct in his dismissal of where the team are at, stating “it is not good enough.”
Unlike some teams, Alpine have not revealed when their next big upgrade package might be arriving, but for Gasly, it clearly can not come quickly enough. The only good news for the Frenchman is that his team mate believes that the slower-speed corners around the Hungaroring might suit the car a little bit more.
Gasly only has a few days to wait to find out if Colapinto’s assessment is correct, with the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend beginning on Friday.
