Alpine had a rather rough (and point-less) debut last month in Bahrain. 

Esteban Ocon was knocked out in Q1 after being caught up in between yellow flags and traffic and only managed to finish 13th after being hit by Sebastian Vettel in the final laps of the race.

Fernando Alonso had a troubled F1 return, as he was forced to retire when a sandwich wrapper got stuck in a rear brake duct, causing the brakes to overheat.

Issues aside, it appeared quite clearly that the A521 is lacking the pace to keep up with competitors.

“The Bahrain race weekend confirmed some of the weaknesses of our package, which we’re working hard to improve and gain the few tenths of a second that we are currently missing to fight at the front of the midfield,” Marcin Budkowski explained.

According to the Executive Director, Alpine will be ready to introduce upgrades as soon as this race weekend in Imola.

“We have an aerodynamic upgrade package coming to the car for this grand prix.”

“In addition, we have some test items to assess during Friday practice, which will help define further upgrades planned over the next few races.”

Hence, the team is looking forward to this GP as an opportunity to score their very first points of the season.

“I think we have to fight to score our first points of the season on Sunday,” said Alonso.

He is hopeful that the different weather conditions and the car’s new setup will be enough to secure a top 10 finish.

“Let’s hope all our bad luck for the season was used up in Bahrain. We’re still learning lots about the car and I’m expecting that the setup here and, of course, the weather will be very different to what we experienced in Bahrain.”

“It should be pretty close and a few tenths of a second could make up a number of positions.”