The Frenchman has secured Alpine’s new floor upgrade originally planned for Miami, with construction of an undertray having been fast-tracked in time for the Chinese Grand Prix.
This new floor features modifications to the diffuser, heavily revised front fences and a new floor edge wing that includes a rearward slot.
While these changes should help improve performance, Ocon said his A524’s overall setup missed the mark for entering SQ2 during sprint qualifying – and suggested a plethora of changes would need to be made once the closed park reopened. qualification itself.
“I feel like we didn’t maximize the potential of the car today, unfortunately it’s probably the first time this year that’s the case,” lamented Ocon.
“I think there were probably more today. And, with just one [practice] session, unfortunately we didn’t have everything in place.
“There’s a bit of performance left, so it’s a good thing that parc ferme is reopening so we can change for the next qualifying.
“We will try to race tomorrow like this early in the morning and then after that try with different settings in the car and see what we get.
“We’re going to change quite a few things. Until we try, we won’t know exactly if it’s the right thing to do, but it might be worth a try.”
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
His teammate Pierre Gasly will have to wait for Miami before getting his hands on the new ground, but he was much more optimistic about his chances without the upgrades.
Gasly’s training was disrupted by an ERS issue which forced a change in his powertrain components, but he was nonetheless happy with the balance he had and felt he got the most out of it during his run to 16th place on Saturday’s sprint grid.
“We had a problem with the ERS this morning, so basically we only managed to do about three laps at the end of the session,” Gasly said. “And on a sprint weekend, we know how important it was to get it right from the start.
“But then the guys managed to fix the problem this afternoon, change the engine and take the car out for qualifying. So that was good and I’m very happy with the lap I did in this qualification I think it turned out slightly better than we hoped.
“It’s quite tricky without the improved floor; it was a good effort, and we came close in Q2. But it’s quite positive.”
“I know I’ll get those pieces in Miami, and that should get us through to Q2 and move a little bit closer towards the points.”
The Frenchman has secured Alpine’s new floor upgrade originally planned for Miami, with construction of an undertray having been fast-tracked in time for the Chinese Grand Prix.
This new floor features modifications to the diffuser, heavily revised front fences and a new floor edge wing that includes a rearward slot.
While these changes should help improve performance, Ocon said his A524’s overall setup missed the mark for entering SQ2 during sprint qualifying – and suggested a plethora of changes would need to be made once the closed park reopened. qualification itself.
“I feel like we didn’t maximize the potential of the car today, unfortunately it’s probably the first time this year that’s the case,” lamented Ocon.
“I think there were probably more today. And, with just one [practice] session, unfortunately we didn’t have everything in place.
“There’s a bit of performance left, so it’s a good thing that parc ferme is reopening so we can change for the next qualifying.
“We will try to race tomorrow like this early in the morning and then after that try with different settings in the car and see what we get.
“We’re going to change quite a few things. Until we try, we won’t know exactly if it’s the right thing to do, but it might be worth a try.”
Pierre Gasly, Alpine A524
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
His teammate Pierre Gasly will have to wait for Miami before getting his hands on the new ground, but he was much more optimistic about his chances without the upgrades.
Gasly’s training was disrupted by an ERS issue which forced a change in his powertrain components, but he was nonetheless happy with the balance he had and felt he got the most out of it during his run to 16th place on Saturday’s sprint grid.
“We had a problem with the ERS this morning, so basically we only managed to do about three laps at the end of the session,” Gasly said. “And on a sprint weekend, we know how important it was to get it right from the start.
“But then the guys managed to fix the problem this afternoon, change the engine and take the car out for qualifying. So that was good and I’m very happy with the lap I did in this qualification I think it turned out slightly better than we hoped.
“It’s quite tricky without the improved floor; it was a good effort, and we came close in Q2. But it’s quite positive.”
“I know I’ll get those pieces in Miami, and that should get us through to Q2 and move a little bit closer towards the points.”