Pierre Gasly reckons that the issue which has been preventing Alpine F1 from performing at its best might have been solved ahead of the US GP. In fact, the Frenchman believes all the issues from the past rounds has been found. His lack of pace was probably caused by some aerodynamic components not working properly. These have now been replaced, allowing for positive feelings about the race in Austin.
Making the best out of a not ideal situation
Gasly admits that the final races of Alpine F1 ‘s 2025, including the US GP, might be a survival matter. He doesn’t know whether points or positive performances will be in the cards for him and teammate Franco Colapinto. However, he reckons there might still be some good takeaways now that the main issue on his side has been fixed.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m just very realistic about the situation we’re in. I think I’ve had a fair few months to be in the right place about it. To just be focusing on the stuff I can control and trying to deliver the best of myself for the team, and same the other way.”
Now the former Red Bull driver believes there’s the potential to achieve more compared to the latest events in Monza, Baku, and Singapore.
“So, objectively what I care the most about is just feeling that we’re getting everything out of the package we have, which hasn’t been the case in the last three weekends. We worked really hard with the team. We figured things out on my car, parts and stuff that wasn’t working properly.
“So, the main focus is to make sure that these last six races the standards at which we were as high as they need to be for us, and to get ready for next year.”
A positive outlook on 2025
In spite of the lack of performance which affected Alpine ’s latest outings, Gasly is looking forward to returning on track with his French F1 challenger for the US GP .
“Yeah. I would do it every single day if I could.”
Gasly then elaborated on the feelings harboured in the past weeks. In fact, the former GP winner was seen lagging at the back of the field, struggling to complete any move.
“So, I think the enjoyment behind the wheel is there. What I’m missing is just the competition and the sort of reward for the work that you put in. It’s something which is not nice, but I’m aware. I do work also on myself to just focus on the right stuff.”
His goal until the end of 2025 is to try and extract the most pace and performance from the A525. Alpine probably had bigger hopes for their final year as independent engine producer before the Mercedes switch. Nevertheless, Gasly is OK with it.
“Like, there is no point in building up that frustration. It is not going to change until the end of the year. So, you just try to find small wins when it matters. What matters to me is, regardless of the position we finish in, just feel that this was 100% as good a performance as it could be with that car. This means when the car is better, at least I know we won’t leave anything on the table. We’ve done that a few times, but not the last three weekends. We want to make sure we do it for the last part of the season.”
What was fixed ahead of the US GP?
The positive feelings for the US GP arise from the fact that Alpine has mounted new components on Gasly ‘s car. This innovation happens for the first time since the beginning of his lack of feeling with the car. While some modifications had already been done ahead of Singapore, the issues had perdured, Gasly explained.
“We obviously repair stuff. In terms of parts, you can’t have new aero parts every single weekend, and you have some wear over it. You pick a weekend where you want to put new aero parts on the car.
“Unfortunately, we’ve done some repair like we do usually on some parts that I’ve been using since Monza. I have something that didn’t feel quite right since Monza. We’ve tried to work on it, but it took us some time to figure it out.
“Eventually after Singapore, we worked hard with the team and saw that there were a few aero components on the car which weren’t working the way they should have. So, these should be fixed for this weekend.”
Gasly confirmed that no upgrades were brought to Austin, but that they’re just new version of the previous used components.
“They are the same spec, but they are new parts.”
