Pierre Gasly reckons overcut worked more in F1 Monaco GP than undercut after managing to stay ahead, as Yuki Tsunoda was undone by strategy choices.
AlphaTauri finally managed to have a better weekend in F1 Monaco GP, with Gasly finishing sixth, scoring valuable points after an average start to 2021 season. The Frenchman had Lewis Hamilton to defend all-through, which he managed to do so.
Although, he lost to Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel, but they managed to make the overcut work on their direct competitor Hamilton, who chose undercut. There was some disappointment on losing two places, but overall, he felt they needed the points.
It was close with Vettel, though, with the two fighting up the hill, where the German just beat him. On the strategy side, in general, Gasly felt overcut worked better in Monaco. “The inlap was good but I believe that in the race, the overcut was better, because the warm-up was difficult,” he said to TV media.
“I don’t think his outlap was that fast and we managed to just come in front of him. In my outlap, we had a blue flag as well, so lost a little bit time there. With Seb, we literally came out literally side-by-side and he managed to get on top of us, but really close. I must say, it was very intense, with Lewis right behind us for 78 laps, we knew we could do any mistake because otherwise, he will pass us.
“It was good, the first stint was great, he put pressure on us by boxing and tried to undercut, so we had to cover him, which I believe was the right choice, but then Seb and Sergio managed to overcut us, which was a shame. But still, it was a good race and very intense, some good points,” summed up Gasly.
While it was a good run for Gasly, teammate Tsunoda had another race to forget. Starting from the back of the field after getting knocked out in Q1, the Japanese couldn’t make inroads on the alternate strategy of going long.
The FP2 crash cost him confidence and lap time, which he feels is important for a circuit like Monaco, especially in all-important qualifying. “It was tough race weekend for us, especially in the race,” said Tsunoda. “I think the way we decided our strategy, whether we start with prime or option, when I see overall, it just didn’t work well.
“I couldn’t decide because when you see such a big difference, we need to gamble, but this gamble didn’t work quite well. When sitting behind a car, the pace was ok. Overall, I think, the main issue was qualifying performance and I hope we can do better.
“The qualifying issue is 50-50, definitely there is my side, as well. I lost some time in FP2 and so lost a bit of confidence there, and in qualifying here, you need confidence in the car. It was my fault and I think we have to pull it all together in the future,” summed up Tsunoda, who is a bit off his teammate Gasly on pace, at the moment.
Here’s Mercedes on undercut being feasible option
Here’s Pierre Gasly thinking he and Sebastian Vettel would have ended in the harbour
