Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to be embarrassed by Alpine at Spanish GP

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell may be embarrassed by Alpine at the Spanish Grand Prix, if the French outfit’s sporting director is to be believed. Alan Permane is incredibly confident and reckons his team will push Mercedes further down the grid now they have implemented new updates.

Alpine sit fifth in the Constructors’ Championship with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly amassing 35 points between them. In contrast, Hamilton and Russell have put 119 points on the board as they sit third.

Ferrari split the two rivals in fourth place but Permane is confident Alpine will be able to take the fight to the Silver Arrows in Barcelona.

“I fully expect to be in front of Mercedes and with Ferrari at the next race,” he said after the Monaco Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen is leading the Drivers’ Championship and is expected to clinch his third consecutive world title this year, with Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso his closest challengers.

The confidence flowing through Alpine stops there, with Permane not expecting his manufacturer to be battling at the front alongside Red Bull and Aston Martin.

“Max is too far away, and when Checo is on his game, he will be as well,” he explained. “Fernando is going to be very difficult but I don’t see why we can’t race with Ferrari and Mercedes, which we have done [in Monaco] and as we did do in Miami as well. They were quicker than us ultimately, but we were in a race with them. That is where we are aiming for.”

Ocon secured Alpine’s first podium of the season in Monaco last time out, much to the surprise of his team.

“In Baku, the slow corners were still a nightmare for us,” said Permane. “We started off on the wrong foot there, but I don’t want to dwell on it. We knew the car was solid.”

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“It performed well in Melbourne and showed its potential in Jeddah. It was good in Miami, so we knew we were within striking distance.

“We didn’t expect a podium, but after qualifying, the top three was our goal.”

He added: “We had a fantastic qualifying session, and that was the foundation. Ferrari helped us a bit, but we still earned the result.

“We believe that we can achieve good results again. Plus, we’ll continue to understand the car even better.”

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