"It's very exciting" - Team Director says Alpine 'significantly up' in new car's development for 2023 season

Alpine are already ahead in terms of projections for next year's car, according to Alain Permaine, the team's sporting director.

Alpine ended the 2021 season in fifth place in the championship and arguably had a car that was sixth fastest. This season, they have made a jump and are clearly the fourth-fastest car in terms of performance.

As per Permaine, things could be even better for Alpine next season.

According to Permaine, the development of the next charger is progressing better than expected. Talking to motorsport.com, he said,

“They're already, really, significantly up with next year's car. It's very good. It's very exciting.”

Alpine have had an impressive machinery this season but have been plagued by reliability issues.

In Singapore, both Alpines were forced to retire because of reliability problems. Talking about the issues, Permaine said that they were factored in before the start of the season, as Alpine gone a bit bold with the power unit. He said:

“We've had a couple of bits of unreliability, but that was kind of factored into our year this year. There was a massive change on the power unit, and a massive change on the gearbox. We knew there were going to be a few issues, but I think we all signed up for that."

He added:

"We knew that it may be potentially a bit tough, but it would release some significant performance. And it has done just that. So we're super happy with the way things are going.”

Talking about the latest upgrade on the car, the Alpine sporting director expressed his happiness at the way it has worked out. The car has double the amount of performance it was expected to give. Permaine said:

“This is version four of our floor and in Austin it's going to be the 4B. We've got another update, but not quite as big as this one. It's just the tunnel is working very, very well. We're just finding lots of stuff. We had always planned an upgrade for Singapore, it was just double what we thought it was going to be.”

Alpine (143) are fourth in the constructor standings ahead of the US GP in Austin this weekend.

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Alpine had chat with Daniel Ricciardo for second seat next season

Alpine boss Otmar Szafneur said during the team principal's press conference in Suzuka that Daniel Ricciardo was one of the names who was discussed as a prospective second driver.

However, he added that when Pierre Gasly became available, the choice became much more straightforward. Szafneur said:

“At the beginning, we discussed with a few drivers, including Daniel. We had a seat available around the summer break, and then we started looking around as to who would be [the] best fit, and we had some criteria to work to."

He added:

"The three things we wanted were natural speed, a fast driver; one with experience; and also youth at the same time. Adding all three things up, there aren’t many people that have all that, and Pierre definitely does. Pierre meets the criteria that I said to a tee. He’s experienced, fast and young, so when it became evident that Pierre was a possibility, we made our shortlist even shorter.”

Alpine will pair Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon for the 2023 season in the first all-French lineup in F1 in more than two decades.