One F1 team insists pace “not miles away” as search for first 2025 point continues

Pierre Gasly feels Alpine’s pace is “not miles away” despite a dreadful start to the 2025 Formula 1 season.

The Alpine A525 proved uncompetitive in the opening three flyaway races of the year, with both Gasly and newcomer Jack Doohan failing to break inside the top 10 in Australia, China and Japan.

Gasly’s best result so far in 2025 is an 11th-place finish in Melbourne, while under-pressure Doohan is yet to finish higher than 13th in his short grand prix career.

This has put the Renault-owned squad in a similar situation to 2024, when it failed to score a single point until the sixth round of the season in Miami.

However, while Gasly admitted that Alpine has work to do to move up the competitive order, he feels the team is not that far off from its first points finish of the year.

“There were a few things to analyse,” Gasly said after Suzuka. “It felt like we actually did everything I could from inside the car.

“We had a small issue at the pit stop, which I don’t know what happened yet but we’ll review.

“Then ultimately, we lacked a little bit of pace to be in that top 10. It wasn’t miles away, but it generally felt like we were lacking a bit of pace.”

With the Japanese GP now complete, F1 heads to Bahrain this weekend as part of the first triple header of the year.

Alpine put on a strong show at the Sakhir venue during pre-season testing in February, with Gasly setting the ninth-fastest time across three days of running.

Asked about the French team’s prospects at the 5.4km circuit, Gasly said: “I think it is going to be good to reset after the first three weekends on a track we know.

“The good thing is that we get to race again next week, so we’ll try to get these points next weekend.”

The 2025 season has proved to be a baptism of fire so far for Doohan, whose future at Alpine is under threat following the team’s decision to sign Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver.

At Suzuka, the Australian had to vacate his car in FP1 for another Alpine reserve, Ryo Hirakawa, and his day ended early after he crashed the car at Turn 1 after failing to close the DRS.

Qualifying 19th on the grid, only ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, he finished the race more than a minute off the lead in 15th place.

Asked to sum up his outing in Japan, Doohan said: “I think we can’t be unhappy. Very limited running as is the obvious, and no high-fuel running coming into the race, so it was a little bit of a step into the dark.

“We went super aggressive on the strategy, which gave us our best chance for an undercut. It wasn’t the fastest overall race time, but we were able to get that undercut, which was great.

“But it put us in a difficult position with about 25 laps to go when the hard tyre was giving up.

“We did a good job to keep [Nico] Hulkenberg behind, not enough with Carlos [Sainz] on those newer softs. All in all, we’re still not where we want to be, but for myself this weekend, we can’t be too unhappy.”

Like Gasly, Doohan stressed that it’s important for Alpine to get its first points on board as early as possible.

“I can’t wait for it and we’ve just got to keep working together as a team, keep pushing and get these points,” the 22-year-old said. “That’s what’s important.”