Race Weekend Central

The Pit Straight: Where Did Alpine F1 Go Wrong?

As the eyes of the Formula 1 world were drawn to a record-setting Red Bull Racing at the conclusion of Sunday’s (July 23) Hungarian Grand Prix, the eyes of The Pit Straight host Jack Swansey were laser-focused on the team at the other end of the grid: finishing 19th and 20th, respectively, after a first-lap collision were teammates and countrymen Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly.

Stuck with its second consecutive double-DNF, Alpine F1 Team has been forced to watch as early-season rivals McLaren Racing have racked up points and podiums as the summer break approaches. A shuffle at the top of the company that saw CEO Laurent Rossi replaced with Philippe Krief just hours before Friday practice began seems to indicate what most observers agree: something is wrong with the boys in blue.

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Jeffrey Boswell returns to the show to discuss how the French constructor has fallen behind in F1’s hyper-competitive midfield, evaluate what should have been an intra-team battle for the ages, and debate what commitment to win looks like in a cost-cap era. Swansey, meanwhile, manages to go an entire episode without pleading with Alpine to bring the A110 sports car to the US market, shares a pet theory about ex-Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn, and both make an admirable effort to consistently pronounce French names in their American accents.

The Pit Straight is Frontstretch‘s F1 podcast, available weekly on Tuesdays on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and right here on the web.

About the author

Jack Swansey primarily covers open-wheel racing for Frontstretch and co-hosts The Pit Straight Podcast, but you can also catch him writing about NASCAR, sports cars, and anything else with four wheels and a motor. Originally from North Carolina and now residing in Los Angeles, he joined the site as Sunday news writer midway through 2022 and is an avid collector (some would say hoarder) of die-cast cars.

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