From ninth to sixth on a single Grand Prix Sunday,
Alpine’s potential windfall from their double podium in Brazil is a whopping
$30 million, or “29.2 million” to be precise according to Flavio Briatore.
Overweight and lacking horsepower, Alpine‘s A524 spent the better
part of the early season at the very back of the grid before slowly making
gentle progress.
It’s not $30 million, says Alpine executive advisor,
it’s…
However, even that was not enough to regularly trouble
the scorecard with the team bagging all of 14 points in 20 races.
And then came Brazil.
It’s often been said that rain is the great leveller in
Formula 1 and while it could be argued a free pit stop added to that with every
one of the top three, including race winner Max Verstappen, gifted a free tyre
change when the race was red flagged Franco Colapinto’s crash, they all had to
be in the position – and on the track – to benefit.
Verstappen, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly did just that.
Yet to make their mandatory pit stop, they lined up for
the restart with Ocon up in P1 ahead of Verstappen and Gasly. The Red Bull
driver made short work of Ocon at the restart after which it was a case of
staying on the track and protecting the podium.
Ocon and Gasly succeeded in those tasks as they
finished 2-3 in what could potentially be a mega-money payout for
Alpine.
Scoring 35 points on the day, Alpine shot up from ninth
in the Constructors’
Championship to sixth.
If, and it’s a big if given Haas are just three points
off the pace and have been the more consistent points-scorers, Alpine hold onto
P6 that’s worth an estimated $30 million in the Constructors’ prize money.
According to Alpine executive advisor Flavio Briatore,
it’s actually a few bucks short of that.
“From ninth place to sixth place is not 30 million,” he
said with a laugh to Sky Italia. “It’s 29.2 million! It’s the first thing
I asked.”
But as Alpine celebrated the success, the Italian admitted the team got lucky on the day – and they may be out of luck in the final three races; Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
