Confidence in AlphaTauri is high: 'Only Verstappen and Mercedes did that'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Pierre Gasly was unable to finish in Bahrain, but he will get another chance this weekend. The car that AlphaTauri will be competing with this year has proven to be a good car so far and that gives good expectations for the upcoming Grand Prix. Also because the team used a strategy in Bahrain that only Verstappen and Mercedes used.
The medium tyre
In the team's preview of the upcoming race, Gasly says: "Apart from the collision with Daniel, the Bahrain weekend went well, with a lot of positives to take from it. In all the free practice sessions we were front runners and a top-five in qualifying was one of our best ever results. Overall, in terms of performance and speed, it is very encouraging for the rest of the season, starting with Imola this weekend. From what we saw in Bahrain, it seems we have a package that will allow us to fight for the big points and there is no reason for that not to be the case for the coming races."
So there is absolutely no shortage of confidence in the car and that obviously puts Gasly in a positive mood for this coming weekend. What adds to this is the strategy in Q2 of qualifying. Gasly continued: "One example of the team’s confidence was the decision to tackle Q2 at Sakhir on the Medium tyre as apart from us, there was only the two Mercedes and Max Verstappen who did it. It was a risk, but it proves our belief in our car and our performance level. Now I hope we will be able to do that again at other circuits."
Still room for improvement
As already touched upon, AlphaTauri is in good shape with their car, but that doesn't mean the team is done yet. According to Gasly, the team has been working hard since the first race because there are still areas that could use improvement, despite the fact that the pace is definitely there now. It's still early in the season though, so everyone is making progress of course, which is why Gasly insists they need to keep working.
Or in his words: "But this early in the season, we can expect everyone to make progress as they get to understand their cars better and how to optimise them. So, we have to work hard to keep moving forward. Honestly, I can’t wait to go racing again as this three-week break has seemed quite long. From now on, the races come one after the other and I’m keen to see what results we can get.”