Alpine technical director Matt Harman has admitted that some rivals got the jump on them when it came to car development in 2023.
Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon could only manage two podium finishes between them last season, but Harman has insisted that the team have learned their lesson ahead of 2024.
They were also a long way off their 2022 points total which enabled them to finish fourth that season, representing a notable regression.
The upcoming 2024 season marks a chance for the team - who have recently received an injection of cash from a number of sporting superstars - to close the gap to the top five in the constructors' championship.
Alpine's 2024 ambition
French driver Ocon recently revealed some rather negative thoughts on how the new Alpine car is shaping up ahead of 2024, but Harman believes that the team know the direction that they need to take in order to improve performance.
“I think we got a little bit outgunned aerodynamically by some other cars,” he told F1.com.
“We did make some ground at the start of the season on the people we were targeting.
“But there were some notable teams that had made a bigger step than we did. Some of that is to do with pure load on the car, pure development and the amount of load we’re able to put on the car. Some of it was the understanding we needed to extract from the car in the way in which we operate it.
“There have been experiments going on throughout the year to try and get to the bottom of that. Some of it has been visible, some of it hasn’t been so visible. We hope to use that learning to try and get a more positive result this year.”