Alpine’s Otmar Szafnauer: “We’ve demonstrated our ability this weekend”

The BWT Alpine F1 Team left the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve with ten points towards the FIA Formula 1 World Championship Constructors’ title, and Otmar Szafnauer says they can be proud of what they achieved across the weekend in Canada.

Esteban Ocon finished sixth and Fernando Alonso seventh on the road, although the latter took a five-second time penalty for weaving on the back straight whilst defending from Valtteri Bottas that relegated him to ninth. 

This was as the Spaniard was struggling with an engine issue that was costing him time down the straights, and only clever use of Ocon and the Drag Reduction System (DRS) ahead of him prevented him from sliding down the order.

Alonso started the day on the front row of the grid after playing a starring role in Qualifying on Saturday, but Szafnauer, the Team Principal at Alpine, says they were always realistic about their chances of remaining in the podium hunt, particularly with the speed advantage of Scuderia Ferrari and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

“The team leaves Canada feeling proud after scoring good points in today’s race with Esteban sixth and Fernando ninth after a post-race penalty,” said Szafnauer.  

“Even after such a strong Saturday, we entered the race today with a realistic mindset and we knew scoring multiple points with both cars and swinging the momentum in the championship was the absolute goal.

“Fernando was certainly very unfortunate with the deployment timing of both VSCs early in the race and he also had a small issue on his car, which held him back from making further progress.

“Esteban benefitted from a bright start to the race and executed his plan well to progress to sixth at the end, with his clever, team-minded driving to allow Fernando DRS in the closing stages, the key to cementing our final positions.

“We’ve demonstrated our ability this weekend and we look forward to the next string of car updates for the next round with the objective of fighting further up the grid.”