Gasly after his battle with Hamilton: “It’s better than last year”

In recent years, duels on the track were relatively limited by the technical aspect of the cars. Indeed, as soon as two cars were following each other, the second one would receive the dirty air from the Formula 1 car ahead. This quickly resulted in damaging the tires of the cars, making them particularly difficult for the drivers to control. This is why the technical regulations for the upcoming season have been somewhat modified.

For the 2022 season, the ground effect and Venturi tunnels are making a big comeback. And while all these new features increase the weight of the cars, they promise some fierce battles on the track, just like the one between Pierre Gasly and Lewis Hamilton during the Bahrain tests last week.

Asked about his competitors, Pierre Gasly comments: “We know that winning the championship will be difficult,” jokes the Frenchman. “That, unfortunately, we know! But well, I don’t think we’ll be at the back of the grid either. We believe that Ferrari, Mercedes, and Red Bull are leading the way. The order is hard to define because Mercedes and Red Bull are hiding their game, but it’s going to be a tight fight. We will probably see Ferrari at the forefront this season with McLaren slightly behind. But I think there’s a whole group between us, including Aston Martin, Alpine, and us, similar to last season. But I hope that this year we can come out on top,” confesses the AlphaTauri driver.

A duel Gasly – Hamilton.

Regarding his battle with the British driver from Mercedes, Gasly seems optimistic about the upcoming season. “It was fun and interesting to follow, to see what it does and to gather data,” he admits. “I clearly think it’s better than last year, which makes me quite optimistic about the show for this season,” reveals the pilot.

At the controls of the AT03 on Saturday morning, the Normand took the opportunity to launch an attack on Lewis Hamilton. Both on hard tires, they put themselves in similar conditions to those of a race, with Gasly closely following the Briton. And although the AlphaTauri driver had to abandon his attack after a slight forced off-track excursion, he was able to study the behavior of the AT03.

From our side, we know that we have quite a bit of work to do to improve the performance and balance of the car,” says Pierre Gasly. “We could clearly see that Lewis was also struggling, so the team will have to work to be able to fight at the top. These are only tests, so battles are part of the testing and searching for ways to get the best out of the car. As for the race, these few laps were clearly interesting, quite a fun battle. I think all the races will be quite crazy this season,” the Frenchman confides.