Pierre Gasly admits that he needs to calm down on the radio after shouting in F1 French GP, as he is fine with Lando Norris, even after his ‘idiot’ comment.
After a solid qualifying, AlphaTauri’s Gasly did a good job in F1 French GP, until he was overtaken by both Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo via undercut. It was that moment, when he was angry on his team on the radio.
With the extreme degradation due to the green surface, Gasly started to struggle early on, where undercut became a bit powerful. Both Leclerc and Ricciardo pitted before the Frenchman and it eventually allowed them to take away track position.
It annoyed Gasly as he was on the radio asking to pit. Post-race, the Frenchman reflected on the same and noted that he will have to remain calmer on the radio. “At that time, I was struggling in the first stint with the tyres like everyone,” he said to TV media. “I was very vocal on the radio, stating that I wanted to pit.
“I saw all the guys pitting behind me, I thought ok, I’ll still exit ahead of them but in the end, I lost two positions. In traffic, I was damaging the tyres at the start of the stint. I think this didn’t help us, and so, I need to let the emotion calm down. All in all, it is still positive and I am not going to complain, P7 is one of our strongest result of the year and we showed good pace in qualifying and race,” summed up Gasly.
After Leclerc dropped out, Gasly gained a place through that but he lost it again, this time to McLaren’s Norris, who came charging through the field after his late stop. The two had a battle, where not only the Brit, but also the Frenchman went off track in the right-hander.
At that moment, Norris called Gasly an ‘idiot’ on the radio, but post-race, it was fine between them, when they got together on SkyPad. Nico Rosberg tried to ruffle up both, but the Frenchman played it down, stating that it happens in the heat of the moment.
“I saw Lando and he was coming very fast,” said Gasly. “It was close, very close. I know he has good reactions. I was aiming for a nice exit on the kerb. They were really fast. I tried everything I could. But it wasn’t enough. It was hard racing. As for the radio call, I’m the first one to say these kind of things as well in the heat of the moment.
“Probably if he had done the same thing to me I would have called him the same way. It was hard racing,” summed up Gasly, who put down the move as ‘hard racing’, something Norris concurred to, even though, he felt it was a bit over-aggressive.
“Maybe Gasly was a bit over-aggressive and he needs to do a better job next time,” said Norris. “But a lot of what he did was fine. It was just that final bit he was trying too hard. It’s racing and I think as long as he doesn’t do it again, I’m happy.
“We are racing and things happen. The fact he also ended up completely off the track is the bad part about it. He forced me off but he even went off,” summed up Norris, who made up a lot of ground to end up fifth after a bad start.
Here’s the radio call from Lando Norris after the move from Pierre Gasly: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2021-french-grand-prix-gasly-frustrates-norris-in-midfield-battle-at-paul-ricard.1703112783733630328.html
Here’s how F1 French GP panned out
