Alpine stress 'no silver bullet' in tight F1 midfield battle

Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes has stressed that there is "no silver bullet" in the midfield fight this season. 

Little has separated Alpine, Haas, RB, Williams and Stake F1 for the majority of the campaign, with small upgrades having been more beneficial than in the past. 

With the tightness of the midfield battle, even an upgrade worth one-tenth of a second has resulted in better results. 

However, not all upgrades have worked this year, as proven by some teams suffering from a performance decrease after introducing new parts. 

Oakes believes the benefit of an upgrade depends on the circuits remaining on the calendar, and whether more performance can instead be found in an optimal set-up.

"Being in F1 now, rather than on the outside, you read that, and then you're in it, and you go, 'it's really tight'," Oakes told select media including RacingNews365. 

"I sort of beg to differ slightly that the upgrades are important. But I think there's a real distinguishment at the moment, if actually they work when they come to the track, and also the types of tracks we've got left on the calendar, how valuable certain upgrades would be. 

"And there's an argument to say there's more to be extracted from the characteristics of those tracks, the tyres, the approach, than just a pure upgrade."

F1 weekend execution

Perfecting a weekend has been rewarded on most occasions this year, with the smallest error in set-up having large consequences due to how close the midfield is. 

Upgrades have proven to only be beneficial when it is integrated correctly, highlighting Oakes' point of getting the car into the right operating window first. 

Alpine did this well after the summer break in Zandvoort, where Pierre Gasly was competitive all weekend and finished ninth. 

"So I'm sort of pretty pragmatic, but there's going to be no silver bullets," Oakes insisted.

"We've just got to keep working hard. And I think my first weekend in Zandvoort really sort of highlighted that for me, actually, that it isn't just sort of upgrades and updates, it's executing a really good weekend.

"And I think, there was sort of proof in that vision."