Pierre Gasly sets ambitious Alpine F1 target to close gap to McLaren and Mercedes. Pierre Gasly believes Alpine can close the gap to McLaren and Mercedes.

Pierre Gasly has set an ambitious target for Alpine, expressing hope that the French team can begin challenging Mercedes and McLaren — who currently run the same power unit — after this year’s summer break. The French driver shared his thoughts in an interview with RacingNews365.com.

“It’s not going to happen in the space of one month. But I would like to see us, after the summer break, being able to play a more active role in that group with McLaren and Ferrari. In Japan the gap was seven seconds over 28 laps, so we are talking about three or four tenths [per lap]. That’s where we need to look,” Gasly explained.

“We know what we need to improve, and that’s a good thing. We know we don’t have to worry about the Power Unit, because we have the best that’s available on the market. We just need to focus on the chassis and our own work. We have a good package, but we need to make it better.”

Pierre Gasly’s summer roadmap for Alpine highlights a team that is no longer making excuses and is instead focused on tangible technical gains. By leaning on the reliability and performance of their shared power unit, the French squad is placing all their chips on chassis development to catch their immediate rivals. As the F1 circus heads to Miami, the pressure will be on the Enstone engineers to deliver the three-tenths of a second required to turn Pierre Gasly’s ambitious challenge into a reality on the podium.