Alpine’s post-Alonso drama: Ocon’s ridicule while Gasly saves the furniture

The post-Alonso era at Alpine kicked off in the worst possible way in the first Grand Prix of the season in Bahrain, with a terrible performance by Esteban Ocon and adding only two points -last year they got eight- thanks to a brilliant comeback from the debutant in the French team, Pierre Gasly.

The pre-season tests had already revealed that the new French car was not working as well as expected, qualifying for the race in Sakhir sowed fear in the team due to the lack of a step forward, but the race ended by confirming that the A523 and their pilots need a lot of work to be leaders of the middle zoneespecially after the work of Aston Martin and Mercedes.

Gasly started in Bahrain from last place after having his lap that classified him seventeenth disallowed, while Ocon started from ninth, more than a tenth behind Lance Stroll and six behind the Mercedes.

Fernando Alonso during the F1 2023 Bahrain GP.

There was nothing to suggest that the career of Fernando Alonso’s ex-partner would be gruesome: he started placing himself wrong in the starting box and then saw his front wing get damaged when he collided with Lando Norris in the first corner.

His poor positioning on the grid meant a five-second penalty. That penalty had to be served when entering the pits, where he had to wait that long before his mechanics could touch the car. but the team did not comply and started prematurely to change the nose.

This caused Race Direction to penalize him with another five seconds for failing to comply with the previous penalty, and at the same time he was penalized again with another 10 seconds for breaking the pit lane speed limit. In total 20 seconds. In the end, he decided to return to the pits to retire and put an end to a dramatic day.

Gasly was the only one who could save something the furniture for Alpine, as the Frenchman completed a great comeback finishing ninth after starting last. The Frenchman valued the great pace of his car and considered that they had enough speed to have achieved more than the two points they scored with his position.

For his part, Alonso started the season tying the third position and getting on the podium, something that he had not achieved for 14 months, to confirm that Aston Martin is very serious this year.