Alpine took a small step ahead final week in Austin.
The staff introduced a collection of upgrades for the A524 to the Circuit of the Americas, and the outcome was their strongest qualifying session of the season. Piere Gasly stormed into Q3 — usually topping the timing sheets in each Q1 and Q2 — and in the end certified in seventh.
He was promoted to sixth on the grid due to a pit lane begin from George Russell, and whereas he didn’t end within the factors, it was an indication of progress for the staff.
Alpine is now hoping to construct off that progress this upcoming weekend on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix.
“I’m wanting ahead to getting straight again to it in Mexico Metropolis this weekend. The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez is a really distinctive observe being at such excessive altitude,” mentioned Gasly within the staff’s media preview. “The skinny air means we’ve got to run with excessive downforce wings however the automotive nonetheless feels mild to drive and we hit a few of the highest speeds of the season down the lengthy foremost straight. It’s a really completely different problem to Austin however we’ll do our greatest to make use of all the pieces we discovered in Texas in regards to the automotive and have a stronger weekend.”
“I’m wanting ahead to returning to Mexico Metropolis this weekend. It’s an thrilling circuit with a mega environment. Among the finest components for all of the drivers is the packed stadium part, it’s at all times actually particular to drive by way of there and it will get me much more hyped earlier than the beginning of the race,” added Ocon. “The observe is nice to drive and the automotive handles otherwise to just about all over the place else on the calendar due to the excessive altitude. We’ll use our learnings from the upgrades in Austin to extract as a lot efficiency as doable to maximise the weekend.”
