Alpine’s Silverstone hopes fade after Franco Colapinto crash and Pierre Gasly penalty. Alpine faces uphill battle after difficult British GP qualifying.

Saturday at Silverstone turned into a hugely disappointing day for Alpine. During the Sprint Race, Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto fought hard to finish 11th and 12th respectively, holding off a competitive Audi for much of the race. However, the gap to Racing Bulls remained significant, making a place in the top ten virtually impossible, especially considering that only the top eight drivers score points in the Sprint.

Heading into qualifying, Alpine’s objective was clear: beat Audi during Q2 and give themselves a chance of challenging the Racing Bulls pair of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad in Sunday’s British Grand Prix. Unfortunately, events unfolded very differently.

Franco Colapinto’s costly mistake

The first setback came in Q1, where Franco Colapinto was unable to match the pace he had shown on Friday. A mistake, perhaps caused by pushing a little too hard, ended his qualifying session prematurely and left him 19th on the grid, sandwiched between the two Cadillacs. Fortunately, the accident did not involve any other drivers.

“I’m disappointed. I think the car was better than yesterday, but I can’t understand why I couldn’t control it. It was very aggressive. Normally I had understeer in that corner, and I also had clipping. I still don’t really understand why it happened. I’ll need to analyse everything carefully with the team. It’s going to be difficult to recover in the race,” the Argentine admitted.

Pierre Gasly loses grid positions and sees top-ten hopes disappear

Alpine’s remaining hopes of fighting for points were then placed on Pierre Gasly. The Frenchman qualified 12th, just behind Gabriel Bortoleto, but his prospects changed dramatically after qualifying.

A technical problem during Q1 left Gasly without radio communication, preventing the team from warning him that Lance Stroll was approaching on a flying lap. As a result, the stewards handed the Alpine driver a three-place grid penalty, a setback that will almost certainly make the battle against Audi and Racing Bulls even more difficult.

Before learning about the penalty, Gasly had already acknowledged that Alpine lacked the pace to fight consistently with its direct rivals.

“The Sprint and qualifying were both very difficult. For us, it was a return to reality. We’re missing pace compared to our direct competitors. In the Sprint I managed to climb to P8 thanks to a good start, but as soon as the Racing Bulls and Hadjar came back, I had no chance. We believe our performance improved compared to Friday, but not enough. Tomorrow we’ll try to put into practice everything we learned today and fight against Racing Bulls and Audi,” Gasly said in the media pen before being informed of his grid penalty.

With Franco Colapinto starting near the back after his Q1 crash and Pierre Gasly dropping further down the grid because of the penalty, Alpine now faces an uphill battle if it hopes to challenge for points in the British Grand Prix.