What could be Alpine's ceiling in 2023 F1 season?

The start of the 2023 F1 season has not been the best for Alpine.

The French team struggled quite a lot compared to their competitors at the Bahrain GP. Even before the first race of the season, they were quite anonymous during pre-season testing.

Although Pierre Gasly finished in the points, Esteban Ocon had a forgettable race, picking up three time penalties and retiring to save the power unit and other components of the car.

It's clear Alpine have taken a huge step back since 2022, when they finished fourth in the constructors' championship. The Race has speculated where Alpine could end up at this season.

Otmar Szafnauer, Alpine's team principal, and CEO Laurent Rossi harbour hopes of finishing in the top four. However, since Aston Martin propelled themselves up the grid, finishing fourth could be a tough ask for the French team.

In The Race F1 Podcast, Edd Straw, Scott Mitchell-Malm and Ben Anderson discussed where Alpine could end up in the constructors' standings. As Aston Martin have taken huge steps forward, it can be speculated that they could aim for fifth position. As the season progresses, we will find out how quick and competitive the French team is.

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Alpine CEO happy with new PU used in 2023 F1 season

Laurent Rossi recently expressed his satisfaction with the new power unit manufactured by Alpine.

On Beyond the Grid podcast, Rossi explained how championships can be lost due to a poor power unit. However, he praised Renault's power unit headquarters for making one of the best engines for Alpine that can compete with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. He said:

“It’s definitely better than where it was, to be honest with you. I like to say that you don’t win a championship only because of a PU, but you certainly lose it. And the deficit of performance that the PU was generating in prior years was making it impossible for us to aim at anything better than fifth."

He added:

“I mean, Viry [Renault’s power unit headquarters] are very much capable of extracting as much horsepower as they want from the PU, but it was not like a seamless job in terms of integrating the two. The new one is definitely much closer to the competition, I think we are like in the ballpark of a tenth with the best."

As the French team does not sell their power units to any customer team, they can develop it the way they want for their chassis.