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Alpine team principal Bruno Famin recently issued an apology to Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly after his team made the wrong strategy call at the 2024 F1 Hungarian GP qualifying session. The French team pitted their drivers early in Q1 and lost the opportunity to clock in fast laps when the track dried up.
The first qualifying session in Budapest was quite chaotic. Soon after it began, light rain began to pour on the Hungaroring circuit, ruining laps for many F1 drivers out there. Soon enough yellow flags were waved as Red Bull's Sergio Perez lost control of his car and crashed into a barrier. The session was red-flagged as the rain gradually stopped. At this time, Ocon and Gasly were in P11 and P13, respectively.
When the Q1 session resumed, Alpine kept both their drivers in the pits, thinking that the track would not dry up quickly enough for backmarkers to clock a faster lap than Ocon's and Gasly's. However, the Enstone-based team's strategy went wrong since drivers like Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, and Yuki Tsunoda all went faster than Ocon and Gasly, pushing them out of the Q1 session.
After the Hungarian GP qualifying session, Alpine's Bruno Famin admitted that his team made a massive mistake in strategy. He also apologized to his team and drivers and urged for a close inspection of the situation so that these kinds of strategies are always avoided in the future.
"What happened is that we had an interesting opportunity, and we made a big mistake. We apologize to the drivers for not giving them the opportunity in the session and we will debrief together and put measures in place to ensure this never happens again," Famin said (via Motorsport.com)
Famin added that the team was confident that the track would not dry up quickly enough for others to improve. Hence, they did not let both their drivers out of the pits.
"We made a wrong evaluation of the situation. We thought the track, which was damp, will not dry enough to improve the lap time, as we were not too bad, ready to go for Q2," he continued.
"We have to learn from that, to change our process, maybe decision, but just to make sure that this kind of big mistake cannot happen again," the Alpine team principal concluded.
Esteban Ocon on strategy mishap by Alpine at the Hungarian GP qualifying
Esteban Ocon was disappointed after getting knocked out of Q1 in the 2024 F1 Hungarian GP qualifying. Speaking to F1.com, he stated that it was a strategy mistake by his team that cost them a decent track position for Sunday's race. He further added that since Alpine's car is not fast enough, they cannot afford to make such strategy mistakes, which will further bring them down.
"We were not out there. The team decided to not go out. It was a strategy mistake. Clearly, we missed the call to get out," Ocon said.
"With the level of our car, we cannot afford to do these kinds of mistakes. We have never done them [before], and it's been two weekends. So we need to see what's going on and do better," he added.
After the British GP, Alpine is eighth in the constructors' championship table with only nine points.
