“We think we can fight with them”: Alpine boss hopeful of taking the fight to Mercedes and Aston Martin with upcoming upgrades

Alpine is confident of fighting Mercedes for the top four battle after upgrades and development in the car, commented Otmaz Szafnauer, the team principal. Adding to it, he stated that their cars were the fifth fastest in Australia and it would have been a good finish if it wasn't for both drivers crashing out.

"At the last race I think we were comfortably the fifth fastest team, with Ferrari just ahead of us, and us really not pushing hard to see if we could overtake them."

Last season, Alpine rose from fifth to fourth after beating McLaren in a close battle for the constructor's points. Szafnauer is expecting a similar pace of development for the team. It might still be difficult to finish in the top three. With the developmental pace they had in 2022, another fourth-place finish is expected.

"[It was] a bit conservative, but what we’ve got to do is get back on that springboard and develop over the season – it’s a long one – and continue to do what we did last year and improve the car as we go along to try to catch those ahead of us."

Mercedes have suffered with the performance of their car as the W14 has still not achieved a pace to compete for the victories.

The team currently stands third in the constructors' standings. However, Alpine is looking forward to competing with them and their last year's rival McLaren also. Szafnauer spoke about the upgrades the team will be bringing in Baku next week and also in Miami the week later.

"We think we can fight with them. We too have a decent-size upgrade coming for Baku and then a little bit more only a week later in Miami, so we continue to push the upgrades out."

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Alpine profited from the month-long break in April, reveals Szafnauer

Alpine's car in action

Formula 1 had an unplanned month's break after the Chinese Grand Prix was canceled for the third time in succession. While there was no racing action, the teams had an excellent opportunity to work on their cars and plan their upgrades for the season.

Otmar Szafnauer revealed that Alpine too took the opportunity and worked on their upgrades.

"Well, the break wasn’t planned, but it is a welcome break from both getting ample car parts, spares, as well as when we do bring developments. There’s a huge effort to make enough of those parts to ensure that you can really push hard, so that definitely helps."

Alpine could have a way of fighting for the top four in the season and battling with Mercedes. At the same time, however, Ferrari is expecting to bring huge upgrades to their car.

Although the team is currently not posing any competition to the French outfit, with development, it is quite possible that they will become one of the barriers for them.