Pierre Gasly says Sprint Qualifying format in F1 British GP made it tough for AlphaTauri, as Yuki Tsunoda was surprised by points finish.
AlphaTauri’s Gasly had a less than an ideal weekend at Silverstone, after finishing in the points positions in almost every preceding race. Already they were down in FP1 and the Sprint Qualifying format did not work, where they couldn’t change many things.
In the British GP, he felt the car was even behind Alpine and Aston Martin in terms of performance. “I think the format made it tough because with only session for practice, either you get it right from the start or if you get it wrong, it’s very difficult to come back,” said Gasly to written media.
“And unfortunately we need to understand, but in FP1, we were not far from where we are usually. And it’s always risky to go into quali with a lot of unknowns on the car. So we made a couple of changes but it didn’t change the big picture. And I think this weekend we were clearly far away from the Ferrari and McLaren, even slightly behind the Alpine and Aston.
“And we know that we have a bit more pace than that. So I think it’s format is track specific.” On the basis of the pace AlphaTauri has shown in the recent races at the hands of Gasly, there is little doubts on if they can bounce back in Hungaroring.
But in British GP, his problems enhanced when he suffered a late puncture, which put him outside the points. Gasly stated that he was pushing like animal in the early part and was on course for points until the late turn of events.
“Honestly I have no words, because this weekend was clearly the hardest weekend of the season,” said Gasly. “So for whatever reason we didn’t get it right from the start. And even on a very difficult day, I was really pushing like an animal and we managed to make it back to the top ten. I passed Esteban in Turn 15 outside the pit to get P9.
“I was saving the tyres the first ten laps and then I started to push right at the end to get Lance. I think we had a bit more potential than them. And I don’t know who put gravel at the outside of Turn 7, but there were gravel on the track, I went through there and then rear left puncture.
“Then we had to do this extra stop and lost 20 seconds five laps to the end, so it put us from P9 to P14 or whatever and then the race was over. So no, I’m just disappointed because even if it was a very tough weekend, I think that the team deserved at least these two points. And we deserved it after such a race. But in the end we go away with nothing.”
While Gasly his troubles, his teammate Tsunoda, however, was happy with his race, scoring a point. The Japanese driver has lagged behind this season compared to the Frenchman and British GP seemed to have given him some answers. He was, though, surprised with a point as he was running out of it for most part of the grand prix.
A spin for Kimi Raikkonen, late stop for Sergio Perez and a puncture for Gasly, helped him gain positions to end up 10th. “I was happy to get a point,” said Tsunoda. “Those last three or five laps the position was changing a lot. Overall, it was a different format this week, which made it difficult, one free practice and then straight to qualifying, which I had never experienced in Silverstone.
“It was quite a tough race week. And having a tricky qualifying due to the traffic, I couldn’t do a proper lap, but in the end, we were able to get a point which we wanted, for the team, so I’m happy,” summed up Tsunoda.
The article was written by Neeladri Nag
Here’s Pierre Gasly passing Esteban Ocon: https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/video.2021-british-grand-prix-gasly-passes-ocon.1705638759876225580.html
