Pierre Gasly feels Alpine can target Mercedes and Aston Martin in Jeddah: "I don't think the gap is that big"

Pierre Gasly is confident of Alpine’s race pace and believes that Mercedes and Aston Martin could be within their reach.

The Frenchman, who finished ninth in the Bahrain GP, spoke to media including Sportskeeda about their performance targets for the 2023 season.

Asked if Alpine are targeting Aston Martin or Mercedes, Pierre Gasly said:

“I was looking ahead, always looking ahead. As I said form Sunday, there was definitely some very good positive data that came out do it and good signs of performance."

"I don’t think the gap is that big, we finished like 15 or 17 seconds behind George, doing three quarters of the race in traffic and starting from the back, but it is definitely something that is our target and that’s where we want to be fighting.”

Describing his race in Bahrain and the gap to Mercedes, Pierre Gasly explained that despite starting 20th on the grid, he was able to finish 17 seconds behind George Russell. The duo were split by Valtteri Bottas, but the Frenchman reckons that their race in Bahrain showed promising pace. He feels targeting Mercedes and Aston Martin is a realistic goal they can try achieving for the 2023 season.

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Pierre Gasly feels Alpine have potential but it will still take a few races to determine their place in the pecking order

Stating that it’s only the beginning of the season, Pierre Gasly felt there is still time before Alpine could be certain of their position in the pecking order. The Frenchman felt that the Bahrain performance was promising but warned that Jeddah and Melbourne have different track layouts and could tell a different story.

The newly recruited Alpine driver believes they still need to improve their qualifying performance, which could be the key to propelling them into the mix at the front of the grid.

Speaking to media including Sportskeeda in Saudi Arabia, Pierre Gasly analyzed the potential of his car, saying:

“I think generally while it was a bit off a one off and just getting hit too extreme with the deg, and still chasing the package that we have. I’m more confident with what we’ve shown in practice and in the race. I’m quite confident with our race pace and from what we’ve seen on Sunday, we got potential and we showed some good speed, we were in the mix."

"Obviously we want more and fight for bigger points, but we know that if we start at decent positions, I think we could be in the fight. Definitely there are some positives from Sunday, I think from our qualifying trims there’s probably some more to understand and how to extract a bit more form the package we’ve got, but then we’ve been driving only in Bahrain."

"For example, Jeddah is a different track, Melbourne is going to be a very different track. So it’s going to be quite interesting over the next few weekends where everybody stands, because I don’t think it is very clear where we exactly are.”

Although Pierre Gasly finished ninth in Bahrain, his teammate Esteban Ocon had an unfortunate race strewn with penalties and was unable to finish in the points. The French duo are close in terms of performance and could propel Alpine up the grid in the long run.

Since the French manufacturer’s return to the grid in the V6 era as a manufacturing outfit, they have had a series of star drivers such as Fernando Alonso, Daniel Ricciardo, and Nico Hulkenberg. However, they were never able to produce a car worthy of their talent. With two French drivers within a similar age group, this might be Alpine’s most promising lineup to aide them to success.