Gasly didn’t ask for that much, he gains 2 places without doing anything

Of the three Francophones of the weekend, only Pierre Gasly had reason to be satisfied. We insist on the term “satisfied” instead of “happy”, like in Zandvoort for example.

Pierre Gasly indeed had a weekend, certainly not breathtaking, but rather satisfying if we go by the course of the three days: he has been in the top 10 all weekend and had a decent pace.

Of course, for him as for the rest of the team, the performances are not at all those expected from the French team, who have been plunged into an internal crisis since the middle of the year. But nevermind, the Frenchman’s 8th place finish (6th after the disqualifications of Hamilton and Leclerc).

Be that as it may, the weekend went smoothly for him: the car worked from start to finish, the Sprint ended in 7th place and the race was clean.

Not really at stake anymore, but still lessons to learn

The proof is shown at Alpine: we are capable of having perfect weekends in terms of execution. It was impossible to play in the courtyard of Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren. So let’s not talk about Red Bull and Max Verstappen, who had only to wait their turn.

Pierre Gasly left with ten points from the Texan round, on a circuit that is very difficult with cars, notably because of the numerous bumps that cause a world of hurt to the flat-bottoms.

The No. 10, author of his first podium in blue at Zandvoort (not forgetting the Sprint in Belgium), leaves Austin with a smile. « At best we could finish eighth, we finish eighth, so we maximized the whole weekend. Yesterday we finished behind Russell’s Mercedes, today we finish behind the same car, so we know we are at this level of performance (…) We just need to find a little more overall performance » he added.

The 6th place is therefore barely what Alpine can aim for this season. But with a bit more performance, this could add an additional competitor in the leading roles by next year.