‘We’re just too slow’ – Alpine pair assess ‘damage limitation’ in challenging British GP

Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto were left frustrated by Alpine’s lack of performance compared to midfield rivals Racing Bulls at the British Grand Prix, with both drivers dubbing it a race of “damage limitation”.

The team entered the weekend with a 13-point advantage in the standings, but that has shrunk to a single point as they failed to score in the Sprint and brought home P9 (Colapinto) and P10 (Gasly) in Sunday’s race at Silverstone.

It marked their third double points finish of the season and an impressive comeback by Colapinto, who improved by 10 positions following an off-track moment that knocked him out in Q1, but simultaneously revealed their limited pace as they dropped behind Audi and Racing Bulls.

Eager to start well after receiving a three-place grid drop for impeding, Gasly initially came out on top in a feisty intra-team battle early on, but a slow second pit stop dropped him behind the Argentine driver and he was unable to reclaim the position.

“Good damage limitation for the team – three points – just a bit annoying to lose P9 to Franco because we had a slow stop on our side.

“I exited five seconds behind and then it stayed that way so [I’m] not very happy with that. It doesn’t really change the world. We’re just too slow here.

“The entire first stint I was chasing [Gabriel] Bortoleto, who was pulling away, and the [Racing Bulls car] as well. We’re slow and we need to definitely improve very quickly.”

On the other side of the garage, Colapinto gained a handful of places on the opening lap and later capitalised on retirements for drivers who started ahead of him to progress further up the order, with the late Safety Car sealing P9 for him.

While their race pace was significantly stronger than their Qualifying, Alpine were left more aware than ever of the gap to Racing Bulls, with Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad crossing the line in P6 and P7 respectively to take their fourth consecutive double points finish.

Asked how satisfying it felt to still come away with a strong result, Colapinto said: “Good – I’m happy of course. It was a tricky day yesterday with the floor failure but in general, it’s been a very positive day.

“We had a good start and the car was in a better place than on Friday – still quite an inconsistent ride, so we need to do big steps with the team to try and make it faster.

“[In the] second part of the race I struggled a bit more with the balance and a bit of a hair issue – I couldn’t see a lot at one part in the last few laps.

“Generally it was a positive race. I started from P19 [with a] very strong start, a very strong first part of the race in terms of pace, and then we could go forward. We made the most out of it.

“I think it was a bit of a damage limitation race after the really strong weekend of Racing Bulls, and that was it. I think we need to do a lot of work and try to improve the car in many aspects to be stronger in Belgium.”