Pierre Gasly’s painful Alpine assessment in blunt ‘so far back’ verdict

Pierre Gasly said Alpine were “so far back” and “have no pace” after he and team-mate Franco Colapinto were the last two drivers to cross the line in Baku.

The long straights of the street circuits were always likely to be a problem for the underperforming Renault engine and Alpine walked away with zero points for the fourth consecutive weekend.

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Gasly’s 20 points may be the most underrated performance of the year as he drags an underwhelming A525 up the order but of late even he is struggling to get a tune out of it.

The one point Gasly scored in Belgium is the solitary addition to the Alpine tally since the end of July and with Colapinto being the only full-time driver yet to score, it would take a minor miracle for the team to lift itself off the foot of the Constructors’ standings.

That challenge is only made harder by Alpine’s early decision to switch focus to 2026 and Gasly lamented that they are “so far back” after he finished 18th in Azerbaijan.

“Obviously, we have no pace,” he said. “It doesn’t make our life very easy.

“We’ve never really been strong around here, so I think there’s obviously some stuff we don’t do quite well.

“I think overall, the last four or five weekends have been more difficult so really want to work with the team to try to get back into a better place. But yeah, this weekend was clearly not good.

“We’re so far back, honestly, that at the moment we just need sometimes to analyse everything and try to work things out but it clearly didn’t work this weekend.

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“I know it’s going to be tough [for the rest of the season], that’s why I think it’s just important for me to move on and just try to work with the team on what we can do to improve short term.

“But we’re not gonna go from P19 to suddenly finding five tenths of lap time. We know what works and what doesn’t, but I’m sure there are still things we can do better.

“Also, on my side, there are things I did, a mistake that I shouldn’t do, so I keep working but honestly, it’s quite tough when you see the gap with the other cars in front.”

Gasly is on course for the lowest points score of his career having previously scored 23 in the 2022 season. Last season, he scored 42 and was 10th in the standings.

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