Pierre Gasly had an impressive weekend at the F1 Spanish GP where he secured a fine P8 and brought home another 4 points for the team. This Grand Prix is only the second of the season where Alpine have managed to score points. The Alpine team have been struggling quite a lot this season, especially when compared to the end of last season where they appeared to be improving.
When asked about the race the Frenchman revealed an added difficulty in the Spanish heat. He had no water for the entirety of the race.
“Very hard. I mean, first of all, I’m very thirsty because the drink system realised on the grid when I jumped in the car that the drink was stuck or something did not work. I had no drink the whole race, which I knew was gonna make the afternoon quite long.”
A painful triple header
Prior to the Spanish GP weekend, the Alpine team did not have a successful triple header. With both drivers failing to score points in Imola, Gasly’s collision with Tsunoda in Monaco, and Colapinto’s gearbox issue at qualifying in Barcelona, it looked to be a tricky triple header for the team. Luckily, Gasly was able to turn the weekend around when he qualified P8 and later finished the race in P8 as well.
After staying ahead of Isack Hadjar and Nico Hülkenberg in the first stint, they used a tyre offset, and a undercut strategy respectively to leap ahead of the Frenchman. Max Verstappen’s penalty and Kimi Antonelli retiring moved Gasly up two spots.
When asked about his thoughts after the race in Barcelona, the Alpine driver conveyed:
“Yeah, I mean I’m happy with the points. We knew it was going to be more difficult on Sunday because we struggled a bit more with the tire deg, and keeping the tires last as long as the others. So it was a bit tricky.”
“First stint, we reacted to Nico who went on the medium and we put on the soft, which I think was — yeah, we’ll review but it just meant I had to go long and got quite a lot of blue flags with Piastri, Norris, Verstappen, and any time you lose two seconds.
“I don’t feel we got exactly what we wanted out of it there, but ultimately at the end, we still managed to stick in the top ten and get four points, which is very important for the team. Especially, at the end of the triple header, I think we all needed that.”
F1 Spanish GP shows the surprises of the season, says Pierre Gasly
Later, the query of if a P8 feels encouraging when the Barcelona circuit can be viewed as an overall test of the car, was asked. Gasly appeared a bit perplexed at the situation of the Spanish GP, as the results at the end of the weekend looked quite different than expected.
Williams had been the benchmark on a regular basis from Saudi Arabia through to Imola. However, they struggled in Spain. Sauber surprised everyone with a stunning performance.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s a bit strange. Williams looked the fastest car of the midfield the whole season, and you come here and they are not. Stake didn’t look particularly competitive the whole season, and suddenly they are overtaking a Ferrari.”
“I think all in all what I care about is mainly our performance. I think in quali we saw that we can be there, which changes completely your race. If you start 8th or 16th it’s just a huge difference. So I think that’s one thing which I feel like I can really put a lap in quali. In the race, I feel I am lacking a bit to fight the others.”
The midfield is extremely close
Additionally, a question regarding the midfield battles and what could make the small difference came up. The Frenchman expressed that a lot of the small differences can be found in the setup, tires, and prep. He continued on to state the importance of everything coming together, especially when the grid is as close as it is.
“It’s really nailing every parameter and every stuff we have control on to make sure that we don’t leave a percent anywhere on the table. Because at the minute, look at yesterday, eight cars in a tenth it’s crazy. It’s exciting and I’d rather have Formula 1 like that. It’s just a shame top five, six, are a step ahead, but I think for the rest of it, it’s quite an exciting battle.”
Based on qualifying at the Spanish GP, where Verstappen and Russell had the exact same Q3 time of 1:11.848, and the rest of the top ten were separated by around a tenth of a second, Gasly’s statement is more than understandable. The field is looking more close every weekend and it is truly exciting to see who comes out on top.
