8-7-2023
BWT Alpine F1 Team started its home race weekend – the British Grand Prix - with a productive day’s Practice at a packed-out Silverstone Circuit.
Both drivers ran inside the top 10 on the timesheets – Esteban Ocon sixth in Free Practice 1 and Pierre Gasly eighth in Free Practice 2 – while debuting the team’s front wing upgrade.
Tomorrow’s Free Practice 3 begins at 11:30 local time, before Qualifying at 15:00.
Free Practice 1
Esteban, P6, 1:29.319secs, 23 laps
Pierre, P13, 1:29.828secs, 24 laps
Free Practice 2
Esteban, P13, 1:29.242secs, 24 laps
Pierre, P8, 1:28.889secs, 27 laps
Esteban Ocon: “It’s good to be back driving at this iconic circuit. Silverstone always has such a good flow to it and it feels great to attack some of these amazing corner combinations flat out. In terms of our day today, I think we learned a lot from both Free Practice sessions and we’ve acquired some good data to determine the direction we need to take on set-up ahead of tomorrow. The weather conditions will most likely be different for Qualifying and, perhaps even for the race, so that is something all teams will keep an eye on for sure. We’ve got a lot of work to do ahead of tomorrow and I am confident we will be in good shape.”
Pierre Gasly: “Firstly, it’s very enjoyable to drive at such an awesome circuit in front of so many fans. Even on a Friday, the grandstands were full at every corner and that really is good to see for us drivers. On track, it’s been a solid day for us with no real issues and we progressed through our run plan as expected. I definitely think there’s more to come from us and I look forward to tomorrow’s Practice to again try some things and find improvements ahead of Qualifying.”
Matt Harman, Technical Director: “It’s always a great experience to be at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. Many of our Enstone staff members attend this race as it’s a short drive from the factory and this year it’s made even more satisfying that those in attendance are able to see first-hand the benefit of our front wing upgrade, which we’ve been able to deliver on both cars for this weekend. The upgrade has worked as expected and we look forward to adding more performance to the car in the coming weeks with a series of updates. On track, it’s been an uneventful day with both drivers running a productive programme in preparation for the rest of the weekend. There’s more to come from us and we’ll use Free Practice 3 to fine tune the cars ahead of Qualifying and the Race.”