Alpine Executive Director, Marcin Budkowski has described the 2021 F1 season-opener as ‘not the best start’ for the team, after both drivers failed to finish in the points in 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix.
After seeing Esteban Ocon recover to only 13th on race day after being knocked out of Qualifying in Q1, Budkowski admitted that Alpine had endured their “… fair share of bad luck through the weekend; both in qualifying and the race.”
Budkowski however felt that both cars recovered well in the race with Fernando Alonso enjoying a solid return until a brake issue forced the Spaniard to retire on lap 33.
Explaining the specifics of what caused Alonso’s retirement, Budkowski said; “… after the second stop, a sandwich wrap paper got stuck inside the rear brake duct of Fernando’s car, which led to high temperatures and caused some damage to the brake system, so we retired him for safety reasons.”
Alonso however was more reflective of the overall performance despite his “disappointing” retirement on his F1 return, adding; “Looking at the race it was very close in the midfield, and just a couple of tenths seems to change the order quite significantly.”
Esteban Ocon meanwhile endured what Budkowski as a “solid” race despite being spun by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel mid-race.
Ocon himself meanwhile spoke of the incident being Vettel’s fault due to a lock-up but accepted the German’s apology, whilst admitting that there are “positives” and “fighting spirit” to take from the weekend despite failing to score points.
Budkowski however is wary of the task that lies ahead before Imola, saying; “We’ve got some work to do ahead of Imola to bring more performance to the car to fight in a very competitive midfield where each tenth counts.”
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