With a double points finish under his belt after three races, Alpine believes that Pierre Gasly could help the team reach their full potential,
Gasly joined the team as a replacement for Fernando Alonso, giving them an entirely French line up through his partnership with Esteban Ocon.
The French driver finished in P9 in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, and was on course for a top five finish in Australia before a race ending crash with his teammate.
Gasly and Ocon are tied on four points apiece in the Drivers’ Championship, with Alpine sat in sixth in the Constructors’ Standings after three races.
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Alpine is set to bring forth some upgrades in the coming weeks, hoping to boost their performance against fellow mid-tier teams.
“I’m confident,” Gasly said when asked if he hopes that Alpine’s development programme will help them fight for better points finishes.
“Generally speaking, the overall performance hasn’t been as good as we aim for.
“We’ll work to make that better over the next few races.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m pleased because we obviously want to fight higher up the grid and it feels like so far we’re a bit in no man’s land behind the top four teams,” he added.
Alpine took fourth place in the Constructors’ Standings last season but could fall to fifth this year after Aston Martin leap to the front of the grid.
“The team definitely showed last year they were probably the best team in terms of development through the year,” Gasly highlighted.
“There’s a good understanding and correlation between the upgrades they’re bringing on the racetrack.
Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer backed his new driver after his performance in the first three races, accepting that “he’s new and it takes time.”
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“He’s enjoying the team, he likes his engineering team and the mechanics, and we like him.
“He’s fast but it will take time at the margin to eke every little bit out of the car.
“I think it’s just a better understanding of driver and engineering team to set the car up like he likes it.”