Pierre Gasly has labelled the rumours linking Valtteri Bottas to Alpine as “a lot of noise”, with the Frenchman suggesting that the team need to “just focus on the work ahead” as they try to take steps forward.
The Enstone-based outfit have already made changes to their line-up this season, having opted to replace Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto from Round 7 in Imola onwards.
It was then recently revealed that Alpine have enquired about the availability of Mercedes reserve driver Bottas, should they decide to make any further alterations either this year or beyond.
With the squad having faced a difficult campaign so far – which has left them at the bottom of the Teams’ Championship on 19 points, 10 adrift of Haas in ninth place – Gasly was asked during the British Grand Prix weekend about the Bottas speculation and whether it could be useful for Alpine to have another experienced driver onboard to act as a benchmark.
“I don’t think that’s the case,” the 29-year-old responded. “I think it’s a lot of noise. I think the car, I’m showing every weekend what we can do with it, doing a very good job on Saturdays and putting it in places that on paper we all agree we should not really be.
“It’s just tricky, it’s a very tight midfield and we are at the back of it. There will always be noise, especially considering what happened earlier in the year, but I think at the end of the day we should just focus on the work ahead.
“It’s going to be a long season. We don’t have upgrades, the car is not in the best place, but all of us need to focus on what we’ve got to do and try and do it the best way that we can.”
Pushed on whether the car is actually the main issue, rather than the drivers, Gasly acknowledged that the incredibly fine margins across the midfield are also a key factor in the challenge Alpine face.
“It’s easy to make it sound more dramatic than it is,” he explained. “I think it’s just a very tough field. You look a couple of years back, being eight [or] nine-tenths off the fastest car would put you sixth, seventh on the grid.
“This year being eight [or] nine-tenths slower than the fastest car puts you on the back row. I think everyone has done a very good job, we know the strengths and weaknesses of our package. We don’t have the strongest car, we don’t have the strongest engine – both combined doesn’t put us in a very good spot.
“But I see a lot of good stuff happening in the team in terms of trying to get the maximum we can. We know the focus is on 2026 and it comes with some compromises on this year, which are tough to take, but hopefully we see the dividends next year.”
Source link
