Alpine has brought forward the introduction of a new floor design for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, but will only have one example available.
The team has chosen to give the sole upgraded part to Esteban Ocon. Pierre Gasly will continue to use the previous floor design for the event at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Both drivers ran the new front wing and other updates Alpine introduced in the previous round, where its run of point-less weekends continued. The team is accelerating its development plan in an attempt to close the gap to the teams ahead.
“The last race in Japan underlined how big a challenge we have on our hands to improve our performance level,” said team principal Bruno Famin. “We must develop the performance of the car in order to fight for higher positions. The level must be raised across all areas so we can get ourselves out of this difficult moment.
“While it was good to bring the first updates to the car in Suzuka, we must do more. The team has been working extremely hard and we have been able to bring an upgrade to one car this weekend, one race earlier than planned.”
A further example of the floor will be available for Gasly to use from the following round in Miami. The team confirmed to RaceFans they will alternate which driver receives new parts first when only one example is available.
Ocon has out-qualified Gasly at all four rounds so far this year and reached Q2 on the last two occasions. He said the A524 “seemed more competitive in qualifying” in Japan, though his race was compromised when he picked up damage in a collision with Gasly at the restart.
“Ultimately we lacked the pace to compete and, even without the performance loss, it would not have
drastically changed the outcome of the race,” he said.
“The upgrades we brought to Suzuka were in line with our expectations, and I know the team is working extremely hard back at base to bring more performance to the car in the coming races.”
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