Imola is in full swing: everything is ready for a new one Grand Prix of Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna and for the occasion we were in the garage of BWT Alpine F1 Team with Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon.
Generally the race weekend begins to liven up on Friday, when the drivers officially take to the track for the free tests. A fundamental moment for the teams who can finally test a realistic race pace and collect the data to better prepare for qualifying. Furthermore, the tests on 17 May 2024 allowed Ferrari fans to fuel their hope: Charles Leclerc actually scored the first half with 1:16.990 on rubber Soft, the same one used by all the other pilots. Behind him a renewed Mercedes with George Russell at +0.104 and teammate Carlos Sainz at +0.130.
Only in fourth and fifth place were the Red Bulls, who had quite a few stability problems – especially Max Verstappen, who made a few too many excursions on the Imola grass. We must obviously remain calm and wait for the official qualifications scheduled for today 18 May at 4.00 pm, but in the meantime the fans of the prancing horse can wait confidently – in the hope that the updates of the new SF-24 rEVO which has been running at Fiorano in the days previous years bring the desired results.
If more or less every fan knows how a race weekend works from Friday to Sunday, in this article we want to tell you in broad terms what happens on Thursday. For those lucky enough to experience the paddock firsthand, Thursday is in some ways the “best” day of the weekend: the tension of the race is still far away, drivers and professionals wander around the various motorhomes with toothy smiles. Pilots in particular lend themselves more easily to taking photographs, some even give in to playing some fun game for television or social media.
To give an example: next to the Haas team trucks we caught Hulkenberg and Magnussen intent on doing a sort of quiz for the camera. Speaking of Haas, we also crossed paths with the promise Oliver Bearman fully dressed in the team’s official clothing, it is no coincidence that the boy could race with Haas in 2025 on loan from Ferrari. Bearman ran FP1 in a Haas single-seater yesterday 17 May 2024, finishing 15th above Bottas, Guanyu, Sargeant, Albon and Hulkenberg. But the fact that the boy has talent to spare is certainly nothing new.
But let’s get back to BWT Alpine F1 Team: we experienced an intense afternoon together with the team, breathing the relative calm inside the motorhome and admiring the mechanics working on the development of the two single-seaters of Gasly and Ocon. The former also took part in a photographic set sitting inside the single-seater wearing the special yellow clothing dedicated to the memory of Ayrton Sennawho passed away in Imola in a tragic accident at Tamburello on 1 May 1994. One day earlier, on 30 April 1994, the same terrible fate had befallen the driver Roland Ratzenberger, who was also remembered this year with various special initiatives.
Ocon, on the other hand, was fully dressed in the classic technical clothing of the BWT Alpine F1 Team to take photographs and properly adjust the cockpit of his single-seater (and yes, on Thursday the most active of all seem to be the photographers, both the official FIA ones and those of each individual team). As mentioned at the beginning, Thursday is a day without particular anxiety and the paddock seems the happiest place to be, with all the various motorhomes teeming with professionals and enthusiasts doing a bit of healthy public relations. In the BWT Alpine F1 Team motorhome even the water dispensers (obviously designed by BWT) are hi-tech and equipped with LCD display – so as not to look out of place with all the rest of the team’s technical equipment. As we well know, the Alpine team didn’t get off to the best start this year but the experts have assured us that the development of the updates continues unabated. The objective is to move up as much as possible in the constructors’ world championship, with Haas and Visa Cash App RB considered the main competitors to beat.
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