Pierre Gasly enjoyed his first shakedown with his new Alpine Formula 1 team, splitting duty in the all-new A523 "ran smoothly" during a 100km run at Silverstone today.
The team will fully unveil their new car on 16th February in London. Gasly's teammate and boyhood rival Esteban Ocon was also present, each driver doing half the allotted mileage during the course of the day, used also for Media and PR filming purposes allowed by F1 rules. This report is brought to you by muchbetter casino.
Gasly, who makes it an all-French line-up for the French team, shared his thoughts at the day's end: "It’s a fantastic feeling to be driving again, especially in my new colours of Alpine. Today was about getting an initial feel for the car and it felt very good on the laps I drove.
"I know everyone at the team has worked tirelessly to develop the car over the winter and it’s a proud moment to drive it today and see everyone’s faces in the garage. I’m looking forward to the Launch on Thursday and then learning even more about the car at testing.”
Before Gasly did his eight laps, Ocon had been out with the car first, at 9am for nine laps, and said of his outing in the A523: "It’s not until you get back out on track in a Formula 1 car that you realise how much you miss it!
"It was an honour to drive the A523 today and experience first-hand all the hard work and improvements that have gone into this car. A big thank you to all the women and men at Viry and Enstone for reaching this milestone and seeing the car on-track for the first time.
"The first lap is always a memorable one and I’m glad today went smoothly. We will show the A523 to the world this Thursday at the Launch and also on track in Bahrain next week."
Alpine technical director, Matt Harman: “It’s been another milestone ticked for the A523 today with our shakedown at Silverstone and I’m pleased the day ran so smoothly.
"These days are of course limited and not representative, but we’ve certainly had a great day and we now look forward to testing in Bahrain where we expect to continue our learning of the 2023 car," added Harman.
F1 preseason testing takes place at Bahrain International Circuit from 23-25 February.
Latest News
Loading
