Alpine did the ‘unthinkable’ with sixth within the Constructors’ Championship: Gasly

An typically painful 2024 System 1 season has come to a exceptional finish for Alpine. With Pierre Gasly’s seventh positioned end within the season finale in Abu Dhabi securing the crew six factors, the French crew clinched sixth place within the constructors’ championship, forward of Haas F1 Workforce, RB, Williams, and Sauber.

Talking to reporters after the race, Gasly mentioned he was “extraordinarily pleased,” admitting {that a} sixth-placed end would have appeared “unthinkable” earlier within the season.

The 28-year-old additionally famous how the peaks and troughs of this season have been excessive, including that the begin to the 12 months had been “very powerful for all of us within the crew with an underperforming automotive.”

Such an consequence seemed all however inconceivable again within the spring, after Alpine’s disastrous begin to the season. By the primary 5 rounds of the 2024 championship, neither Gasly nor his now-former teammate Esteban Ocon had managed a top-10 end.

Whereas there have been indicators of a mid-season resurgence with a string of ninth and tenth-placed finishes, it turned on the market have been extra stormy tides spent behind the sphere to observe earlier than the crew might lastly reemerge with a podium challenger.

The true turning level got here in Sao Paulo when Ocon completed second and Gasly third for Alpine’s first-ever double podium. For Gasly, a fifth-placed end in Qatar adopted by Sunday’s wonderful effort in Abu Dhabi capped off a wonderful end to what was a difficult 12 months.

Three targets

“Coming right here, there have been three targets: to get sixth within the constructors, tenth within the drivers, and maintain my nostril clear so we’re nonetheless on $0 [in] injury,” he mentioned. “And, yeah, we accomplished all of the targets.”

Gasly, who remarkably prevented any self-inflicted crash injury this season, completed only one level above Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg within the driver’s standings.

Ocon, who was dropped in favor of his 2025 alternative Jack Doohan for Abu Dhabi, completed 14th within the drivers’ standings.

2025 will mark Gasly’s third season with the crew the place he’ll proceed his chase for a sixth F1 podium and second profession win. In the meantime, Ocon is about to affix Haas, the place he’ll accomplice Ferrari teenager Oliver Bearman.