Pierre Gasly is excited about the new AlphaTauri package, but is worried about the tyres suffering in the heat: Friday was “pretty bad” for him
This is going to suck for everyone,” Pierre Gasly is sure, referring to the tyre situation at the Formula 1 race in Le Castellet. Because temperatures of more than 30 degrees Celsius are expected again on Sunday, which will present the tyres with a tough task. “At 58 degrees track temperature, it’s not going to feel great – no matter what tyre you put on. “
The AlphaTauri driver got a taste of that on Friday. “It was pretty bad,” he says. “And I think it will be the same for everyone else. The tyres and the cars will suffer quite a bit on Sunday.”
For Gasly himself, things went pretty well on Friday. In the retread AlphaTauri AT03, the Frenchman ended up in seventh place at his home race, and in the first practice session it had even been enough for fifth place. “In terms of performance, we seem to be back in the top 10,” he said happily. “I’m happy that we could find more performance. “
He was also very happy with the feeling in the car and how it reacted, he said. “There were a lot of positive signs with the new parts,” Gasly said. “The front axle is a bit sharper and a bit more direct in the corners – especially in the very long corners where we normally struggle with washout and overheating.”
“Now it’s sticking a bit better and I have more control in the car – that’s good. Before it wasn’t really reacting the way we wanted it to, but we’ve made a step forward,” he said, praising the team’s work and “100 per cent” sure that AlphaTauri will be racing for a place in Q3 tomorrow.
“It’s really good that we have this package for my home race,” he says. “Now we still need to work on it and understand what we tested today and then bring it together for qualifying tomorrow. “
Teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who finished the day but only 14th, is also convinced by the new package: “I can feel quite clearly a bit more downforce in medium-fast and fast corners,” he says. “That was immediately positive.”
Nevertheless, on Sunday it will probably be mainly a matter of what the car does with the tyres. “It already didn’t feel great today. We had a lot of degradation and a lot of overheating,” Gasly worries a little.
“We just have to be smart about how we drive the car and try to anticipate all these issues,” he says. “Then it should be a fun race. “
