Pierre Gasly gutted with fuel saving in F1 Miami GP which cost him places in the end, but both he and Esteban Ocon relieved to scored points.
After the disaster in Melbourne and Baku, the Alpine pair found some solace in the results in F1 Miami GP where both ended inside the points in a relief. At the same time, Laurent Rossi continued his verbal talk around the team’s lack of performance.
The Frenchman has put the onus on Otmar Szafnauer and the team is certainly feeling the heat. Even though it is clear that McLaren is not in best shape, they are still ahead of Alpine in the constructors’ standings, while Aston Martin has leapfrogged them.
The Alpine car has performed sporadically in races. The Miami GP saw Gasly in a better shape but for the late fuel saving which allowed both Mercedes and Ferrari cars to get through him. The Frenchman was gutted as well as relieved at the same time.
“We tried to do the best we could during our race,” said Gasly to the media. “I had a great start and tried to keep up with Sainz and Alonso in front of me, but unfortunately, they were faster than us. I was running in P6 with 15 laps to go, and I needed to do a lot of fuel saving, which was a little annoying when you have a Ferrari and Mercedesbehind catching.
“So one side a bit gutted to lose on P6, on the other, if we fight one Ferrari and one Mercedesso close from the chequered flag, it really shows we’ve made a big step forward. I think there are still a lot of positives. We’ve got to keep pushing, but we managed to bounce back and score double points for the team, so we will build from there,” summed up Gasly.
Teammate Ocon was in he mix of things too with a late stop as he had a good fight against Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. The different strategy allowed him to secure the points after it didn’t work out in Baku where he stopped on the final lap in the hope of a safety car.
“I think it’s been good to finish with both cars in the points,” said Ocon. “I’m pleased to bounce back from a tough weekend last weekend and had some good fights out there – some good lunges on Valtteri, some good fights with Carlos, back and forward, he passed me I passed him, but he finished in front.
“Unfortunately, we had an aggressive strategy that we knew was a little bit slower, but there could have been more rewards, but it didn’t pay for us today. So, quite costly that P8 in qualifying. We knew that we could have probably finished sixth or seventh today, but it’s a matter of time before it comes.”
Here’s Laurent Rossi noting that the buck stops with Otmar Szafnauer
Here’s Laurent Rossi on lack of execution from Alpine
