Alpine has had a disastrous start to the 2023 season. The team was expected to close the gap to the Top 3, but it has fallen further back. The French team only has 14 points to their name after 5 races. With the Alpine CEO stuck on Otmar Szafnauer’s back to perform, the future F1 star is speculated to be the ideal replacement at Alpine. Let’s see how the story unfolds with the twists and turns.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly’s performance in the A523 has been in shambles. Laurent Rossi recently came out firing shots at the team, indicating poor performance. Calling Otmar Szafnauer responsible for the performance, Rossi suggested that he at least expects to finish P4 in constructors just like in 2022. 

Not only the car is a problem but also the drivers. Up until last year, Alpine had a great leader in the form of Fernando Alonso who could lead the team in a preferred direction. However, the current driver pairing is somewhat soft. El Nacional suggested that Alpine is already looking for a change of drivers as the current ones are underperforming. Not only did the drivers fail to score points in the Australian GP after crashing into each other, but it also cost the team a lot of money in this cost-cap era. 

Esteban Ocon is not considered a leader yet, despite his long stint in F1. He’s one of the more experienced drivers on the grid now. Pierre Gasly on the other hand, is not the classy elite driver he was expected to be. Hence Alpine looking for a new driver is understandable. El Nacional implies that Carlos Sainz is Alpine’s choice and is in the spotlight. However, the Spaniard has not been in his best form since he left McLaren and has been overshadowed by Charles Leclerc.

With Problematic Esteban Ocon Out of the Way, Fernando Alonso Prepares for the “Next Challenge”

Nevertheless, Carlos Sainz is still higher in the driver’s championship (P5) when compared to Charles Leclerc (P7). The Spaniard remains positive about his team finding the right key to unlock performance. 

Carlos Sainz explains how Ferrari is trying to find the key to unlocking performance 

The SF23 has shown signs of the raw pace being within the car when Leclerc took a pole in Baku. However, it’s the race where the cars struggle with tires. Sainz explains how the team has not started the season as they would’ve expected and that Red Bull is definitely superior. However, the team is doing everything in its power to unlock the performance. 

According to Marca.com, Carlos Sainz said, “I’m in a good moment, my head is very focused on analyzing the driving and the car to make the step forward. We have not started as we expected, which was to fight for podiums and victories. There is a clear dominant team and we are trying to diagnose what the main problem is and how to tune it to recover. We are trying to find the key.”

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