Pierre Gasly: « We’re heading in the right direction »
Like the rest of the Alpine team, Pierre Gasly was very solid this weekend in Spain. He scored 2 points at the end of the Grand Prix, reflecting the good momentum generated by the French team. He benefited from a new engine, while Esteban Ocon will normally change his at Silverstone, in 2 weeks' time.
The Spanish Grand Prix will be marked by the return of Flavio Briatore to F1. The new luxury consultant for Alpine attracted attention by officially confirming his new role this Thursday. On the track, as early as Friday and the free practice sessions, Alpine seemed to be competitive. Pierre Gasly set the 4th fastest time in FP2 and hoped to qualify high on the grid the next day. Indeed, on Saturday, the native of Rouen set an excellent lap in Q3 which allowed him to start from 7th position this Sunday! He even outperformed the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, sandwiched between him and Esteban Ocon, 9th (ultimately 8th on the grid after Sergio Perez’s penalty).
« We can be very satisfied, it’s a very good weekend. We did a good qualifying with both cars in the top 10. Today we manage to have a good race, scoring points with both cars »: he confided to Canal+ journalists after the Grand Prix.
We are making progress and that is the most important thing.
The Alpine driver held onto his 7th place for a long time, after a fairly clean Grand Prix start. At mid-race, the French driver couldn’t do anything against Oscar Piastri’s McLaren, on a slightly different strategy. Downgraded to 8th place, Pierre Gasly also couldn’t hold off Sergio Perez and his soft tires on the final lap of the race: “It’s positive, we managed to fight a bit with a McLaren and a Red Bull. It’s a shame about the 8th place but we’re progressing and that’s the most important thing.”
Several areas of improvement in the race
The Barcelona circuit is very demanding on tires. Firstly because of the layout, but also because of the heat which makes tire management delicate:
« I struggled a bit more on the hard tires towards the end. But it required a lot of management during the race: it was very hot. Overall, we had a good Grand Prix. There are some small things to improve: the first pit stop where we lose some time, in the car too I was not super comfortable. »
« We will have to find answers
In Formula 1, the hardest part may not be finding performance but explaining it. This is what Alpine and David Sanchez, the new technical director, will focus on to replicate recent good performances in the future. Pierre Gasly is confident for the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix weekend and Silverstone in two weeks: « We will have to find answers, here it was working much better than expected. There are quite a few things to understand but we are heading in the right direction: we hope it will continue in Austria. »
