"That's not a lot" - Former Alpine boss takes dig at team for scoring one point in Miami

Former Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer has slammed the French team's single-point finish at the 2024 Miami GP.

The Endstone-based outfit has made a rough start to the season. It has been battling at the bottom of the end of the grid, struggling to make headway in the races and often failing to get out of Q1 in qualifying.

However, they seemed to make a minor breakthrough in Miami. With a lighter chassis, both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were more competitive in the main race on Sunday, with the former even scoring a point courtesy of his P10 finish. This was notably the team's first point of the season.

However, while appearing on the RacingNews365 podcast, Szafnauer mentioned that the point wasn't a lot as they scored more in Miami last year under his leadership. The former Alpine team boss said:

“For me, that’s not a lot. Last year, when [we had] all those seniors that have now left, I think we scored six points. We left Miami with six points in the bag, we went to Monaco and I think in Monaco we scored 24 points.

“They’re struggling, I can’t see them doing what McLaren have done. Going to Monaco and scoring 24 points this year, or Imola? I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

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Alpine driver Esteban Ocon opens up on P10 finish at Miami GP

Alpine F1 driver Esteban Ocon stated that despite their first point of the season being an achievement, he cautioned the team against celebrating it too much.

As per Motorsport.com, the Frenchman said:

"We don't want to be jumping around and celebrating too hard. Obviously, it's only a top 10. But considering where we were a couple of races ago in Bahrain, 19th and 20th, we can take the positive out of this race.

"The baby steps that we are doing at the moment obviously feels good because the team kept motivated trying to understand what is going on with our pace, and it hasn't been the smoothest weekend."

He described the 2024 challenger as a better car in qualifying that in race. Ocon said so due to the number of moves he was required to make and the car's "struggles with straight-line speed."

With their P10 finish, Alpine have pushed themselves into P8 in the Constructor's Championship ahead of Williams F1 and Kick Sauber. However, they remain six points behind Haas F1 after six races and two sprints in the 2024 season.