Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly has raised his hands to admit the error he made during his final day of F1 2019 test ahead of the Australian GP.
Gasly spun at Turn 9 when he lost control after a small moment on the grass during his run as he hit the TechPro barrier, damaging not only his front wing but also breaking the rear wing to cause a red flag and a visit to the medical center.
The Frenchman was unscathed but Red Bull has a big task to get the RB15 ready for Max Verstappen to drive on the final day of the 2019 F1 pre-season test at Barcelona. This was Gasly’s second incident after his spin in the first test in Turn 13.
“I am feeling confident, just made a mistake today [Day 3] which was unfortunate,” said Gasly to media including FormulaRapida.net. “I am feeling sorry for the guys as they have a long night to prepare the car for tomorrow [Day 4].
“I went slightly wider, 10-15cm and lost it as I turned in. It was a pretty big impact, but now we will focus on all the work we have done in the four days. We have a lot of things to analyse. We have a good car that we need to make better.
“We will work harder to achieve the goals. [Certainly] not the ideal way to end it [pre-season test], but we look at the positives, as we managed to do a lot of laps in these four days. I am feeling good with the car, we will work on the areas we need to improve [now].
“We saw other teams have good performances [in these seven days so far], but I think our package in general is pretty good.” Even though Red Bull had a pretty reliable run with Honda, the full extent of their performance is yet to be ascertained.
At times, the car has looked to be in the league of Mercedes and Ferrari but it has also looked to be a lonely third at other times. With just the sole car in place, it is big work for Red Bull to be ready for the final day and continue to rack up the miles.
Team principal Christian Horner added: “Pierre’s pre-season test comes to an end in Barcelona with an unfortunate off this afternoon. These things happen and the main thing is that he is OK. We will be back on track tomorrow to make the most of our last day of running before Melbourne.”
Despite the crash, Gasly ended up fourth in the standings with his best of 1m17.091s, set on the C5 compound. The Frenchman completed only 65 laps as a result of the incident with Verstappen now being left to do with more work on Friday.
Additional reporting by Arnau Vinales