Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer suggests a lack of running in the only practice session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix led to Esteban Ocon’s pit lane starts.
The Frenchman lined up at pit exit for the F1 Sprint and the grand prix after the team opted to take his car out of parc ferme conditions.
Speaking in Miami, team boss Szafnauer explained the situation came out of a lack of running in the single 60-minute practice session.
“We had two different issues on both cars and that only allowed us to do three quick laps before we went into parc ferme,” he said.
“To only do three laps when you’re used to three hours of running, to set the car up is very, very difficult.
“That’s what happened to us.”
That saw a focus on baking laps during Friday’s two practice sessions in Miami, Ocon banking 50 across the day while team-mate Pierre Gasly managed another 41.
Alpine introduced a new floor in Azerbaijan a week ago, though the limited running left the team with little data heading into qualifying.
It was a horror start to the event, with Gasly’s car catching fire and Ocon trapped in the garage with a gearbox fitting issue.
“Then we got some feedback from the drivers but by that time it was too late,” Szafnauer explained.
“The read we got on the floor was from qualifying and the two races.
“So we instrumented the floor and happy to say it looks like it’s correlating with what we thought we should have out of the [wind] tunnel.”
That was seemingly reaffirmed on Friday in Miami with the team enjoying a trouble-free run.
“It’s been a productive Friday for the team today here in Miami and it was good to have two smooth Practice sessions where we’ve been able to run to our programme and tick things off our list,” said Pat Fry, the squad’s technical director.
“We have another good read on the upgrades from last week, which are in line with our expectations and performing well on the car.
“The field looks extremely tight with a couple of tenths of a second the difference between a handful of positions, especially in and around the top ten,” he added.
“Everything will need to click and go right if we are to be at the upper end of that mix.
“As ever, we’ll run through the data, see which set-up direction works and aim to come back tomorrow with some further improvements.”
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