Alpine overtook McLaren to finish fourth in 2022 and for this year its target was to be closer to third place than to fifth.
That goal took an unexpected hit due to Aston Martin's giant leap forward, with the Silverstone team second behind Red Bull after three grands prix as it demoted Alpine to sixth, currently behind Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren.
While Aston looks too far ahead for Alpine to catch during the season, the Enstone team has not abandoned its goal of at least remaining fourth and has now set its sights on catching Mercedes.
"We think we can fight with them," Szafnauer said in Australia. "We too have a decent-size upgrade coming for Baku and then a little bit more only a week later in Miami, so we continue to push the upgrades out.
"We had good correlation last year and if that continues and if we continue to push the upgrades, we'll take that development fight over the season to the others around us.
"Last year our development rate was pretty good and if we can keep up the same this year, I think we should, over the year, get closer.
"It's a relative game. I know what we've got coming. What I don't know is what [Mercedes] has coming."
Alpine came to within three tenths of Mercedes in Saudi Arabia qualifying, but the Brackley team managed to widen the gap with a strong performance in Melbourne.
Alpine's chief technical officer Pat Fry says the team now has "four to five tenths" to find on its direct rivals in qualifying. The rapid developments coming out of the factory have given him confidence that bridging that gap is possible.
"We should have a reasonable step for Baku and then more coming through and I think for race six, there should be some reasonable steps going. A lot of the bits that we were hoping to get to Miami, they're doing a great job at the factory and we managed to get those forward," he said.
"We're on average, four or five tenths in qualifying that we need to find, not to catch Red Bull, but to catch the others, which is all within our grasp really. We've just got to out-develop them."
With Mercedes not bringing its major floor redesign until race six in Imola, the next two races in Baku and Miami could give Alpine a good chance to close the gap with its Baku upgrade package.
But Fry has cautioned against putting too much emphasis on whatever Mercedes will bring - and when - instead focusing on optimising its development budget across the entire year.
"We've got reasonable steps coming through, but you don't know what the others are doing. That's all part of the game, isn't it?
"Over the next few races there's certainly some sensible performance coming, which will go a long way to closing the gap. But it's not just a single race, it's the race for the season of development. And you don't know where others are."
