An extremely frustrated Pierre Gasly was left bitterly disappointed by Alpine’s performance at the F1 US GP. He finished last of the runners in P19 at the end of the 56-lap contest.
By Alpine’s recent standards, qualifying was pretty respectable as the 2020 Italian GP winner put his car in P14 on the grid. It got even better early on as he took advantage of the Sainz and Antonelli collision to move into P12.
As the race went on, however, things started to fall away. Lance Stroll overtook on lap 21 for P12. Six tours later, Gasly boxed for a long stint on softs. A slow stop thanks to an issue with the left rear put him behind Esteban Ocon. His day was ruined from there as Alpine’s top speed is extremely poor.
Having fallen to P17 late in the race and was told to do lifting and coasting, Alpine issued team order instructions for Franco Colapinto to stay behind his teammate. The Argentine driver ignored them and made a bold but good move into turn 1 on the penultimate lap.
Gasly would also be passed by Bortoleto on the last lap to finish 19th and last of the classified runners in the F1 US GP.
Pierre Gasly on his F1 US GP
While he did not seem too bothered by Franco Colapinto overtaking, Gasly’s frustration with Alpine’s performance in the second stint was clear.
“We’ll see inside the team [about the team orders].
“First stint was good. Yeah, behind Lawson, all fine on medium.
“Boxed, not too sure why, we’ll see with the team. Another poor pit stop. Come out right in the gearbox of Esteban [Ocon] instead of being ahead. Tried to fight. Overheated the tyres.
“Very poor second stint with the soft in traffic. Ultimately, we’re just too slow.
“The rest of it, honestly, it’s stuff that will review you inside the team. We’re just too slow.”
Pierre Gasly frustrated but keeps his composure in F1 US GP print media pen
On the radio during the race, Gasly’s anger over the slow stop was clear. He did not mince his words to the team.
After Colapinto had passed him, he sarcastically said “good job” to Alpine. This, however, was likely in reference to built-up frustration from coming out behind Ocon and all that went on wrong in the second stint.
“No,” was Pierre Gasly’s response when asked if he was not happy.
“It’s stuff that we need to take inside the office. There’s no point to release the frustration in here.
“I’m unhappy about this race. Overall, I’m just disappointed with our performance this afternoon. We’ll have to do better.”
