AlphaTauri is looking to get back to the front with a “big update” at Le Castellet – fans of Pierre Gasly can experience it in their own grandstand
Pierre Gasly is expecting a “special weekend”, as the Frenchman himself points out ahead of his home race at Le Castellet. “Especially this year because the future of the French GP is a bit uncertain,” explains the AlphaTauri driver.
Background: Paul Ricard has not yet signed a new contract for 2023. So this year could be the last French GP at Le Castellet for the time being. “That’s why I want to enjoy the moment,” Gasly announces.
“We have organised a special Gasly grandstand for my fans at the chicane on the back straight,” he reveals, explaining, “It’s nice to be able to do something more personal and connect with them a bit more than usual. “
He wants to share what could be his last Le Castellet weekend “with all my fans, supporters and Formula 1 enthusiasts from France.” Gasly, who is hoping for a “good result”, is sure: “It will be a good atmosphere. “
AlphaTauri wants to get back in the points
The Frenchman sets points as his target for his home race. “Austria was a weekend to forget. That’s why I’m now particularly keen to race again at Ricard,” Gasly explained after his disaster weekend in Spielberg.
Only qualifying was “okay” there. “Unfortunately, the sprint races have never gone well for us. On Sunday I had an incident and we didn’t have the performance level we needed to fight,” he explained.
After a crash at the start on Saturday, he collected two penalties in the race on Sunday. The consequence: because teammate Yuki Tsunoda also failed to score, AlphaTauri remained without points in three consecutive races for the first time since 2018.
“I hope that with the updates we will have on the car this weekend, it will be much better. They mainly concern aerodynamics and should be a real step forward in terms of performance,” Gasly explained.
“We went for one big update instead of many small ones,” adds Tsunoda, for whom Spielberg has recently been “one of the most difficult race weekends of the season so far”. He, too, is hoping for a big step forward with the new parts.
Can the update eliminate the weaknesses?
Until now, the AT03 has been “quite weak”, especially in the medium-fast and fast corners. And looking ahead to Le Castellet, the Japanese explains, “It’s a track where you need a set-up that works well in medium-fast corners.”
“It can be quite tricky because there is the fast straight and the Signes corner, but also slow and medium-fast corners at the end of Sectors 1 and 3. Normally, that would highlight some weaknesses in our car.”
“But we will have updates in France, so hopefully that won’t be the case anymore,” said the Japanese driver, who wants to finally get into Q3 again this weekend “to make it easier to score points on Sunday. “
Tsunoda has only made it to the final segment of qualifying twice at all this season, most recently in Baku. “Hopefully [the update] will bring us more consistency and allow us to fight at the top of the midfield again,” said the Japanese driver.
He does not have good memories of Le Castellet, however. “Last year’s Grand Prix was quite difficult for me because I had to start from the pit lane after not getting it right in qualifying,” Tsunoda admits.
At that time, the Japanese driver crashed in qualifying and was publicly criticised by Helmut Marko afterwards. It certainly doesn’t help that Tsunoda is currently being criticised again before this year’s Grand Prix …
