"It's going to be a very good gift" - Pierre Gasly on Alpine's 2024 car launch on his birthday

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly has called the 2024 challenger that the team will unveil today (February 7) a "very good gift" on his birthday. The Frenchman turns 28 today.

The French outfit will be the fourth team in the sport to unveil their livery in this car launch season after Haas, Williams, and Stake did so earlier in the week. The team along with their drivers, Gasly and teammate Esteban Ocon, will be hoping that the 2024 challenger will be more competitive than the previous iterations and enables them to compete for podiums regularly.

Speaking to Craig Slater of Sky Sports ahead of the livery launch, Pierre Gasly was quietly optimistic that the livery and the new car would be a good gift on his birthday. He said:

"Yeah, exactly I'm really looking forward to unveiling this 2024 car on a pretty special day. Hopefully, it's going to be a very good gift and I'm glad that everything is prepared a couple of weeks before the season when it properly kicks off in Bahrain. Yeah, the whole team is pretty excited."

Alpine driver on his expectations from the 2024 challenger

Alpine driver Esteban Ocon, meanwhile, has insisted that the team needs to focus on their in-season progress by getting "stronger updates."

Speaking with RacingNews365, the Frenchman said:

“We need to work on the performance of the car, some teams have done a better job than us in progressing and getting stronger updates into the cars. That's what we need to try and change. Obviously, we're already working on the 2024 car in the simulator. We took it earlier in the year, which should help for our 2024 campaign.

"I don't know if it's realistic, I don't care to be honest. That’s what we have to look at. That's where we have to aim. We want to close the gap, we want to get more competitive. We're not going into the new year thinking otherwise. Because otherwise, we would never be winners.”

Alpine and its drivers are pinning a lot of hope on the 2024 challenger as they really need to have a strong season this year to make a claim that they can close the gap to the front-runners in the future.