In Bahrain, Alpine had a difficult weekend as both Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon had issues during crucial stages.

After a chaotic Bahrain Grand Prix weekend, Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed he has no idea where the squad stands in Formula 1’s midfield.

While  Esteban Ocon began from position nine, experienced a race filled with triple-penalties and finally retired to protect the engine, Pierre Gasly, whose Q1 time in Sakhir was deleted due to a track rules infringement, raced to ninth place.

Szafnauer thinks Alpine’s actual level is still hidden since companies like Aston Martin have advanced significantly toward the so-called “big three teams.”

Szafnauer is uncertain of the Alpine position

Szafnauer told the media, including RacingNews365.com, “This race was not a normal race for us; we usually don’t make these operational type mistakes.

“Unfortunately, Pierre started last so he’s not really a good barometer to say where we could have finished.

“If we did a normal race from ninth [with Ocon], I think Lance [Stroll] was just ahead of us, and the question to me is: ‘If we had a normal race, could we have beaten him? Where could we have been?’

“I don’t know that yet, but we’ve got to reflect on this and do better.

“It is not where we want to be, but I think we’re capable of doing better than most people think, so we still have to do it.

Congrats to Aston Martin!

Aston Martin, Szafnauer’s former team, has passed Alpine and is now one of the three teams attempting to overtake Red Bull.

Given the team’s history, the Alpine team manager did not find it surprising, and also highlighted their use of the Mercedes wind tunnel as evidence.

“To be fair to them, it’s always been a good and efficient team,” he remarked.

“The Mercedes wind-tunnel is a very good one and I don’t think you’re penalised by sharing. If you were penalised by sharing, then people wouldn’t share.

“So whether you have your own [wind-tunnel] or you’re sharing, there’s no significant difference, so congratulations to them.

“What we’ve got to look at is we’ve got to beat them too.

“But we should look at how close are we relative to pole from last year? How close are we on race pace and where we could have finished had we not had our operational issues.

“Relative to those, was it better than last year? Because what we need to do is every year catch up, and yeah, Aston made huge improvements and we’ve got to fix it.”

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Alpine, Otmar Szafnauer, F1, F1 2022, Fernando Alonso, Formula 1, Grand Prix, Bahrain Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon