Misfortune, progress to be made, Gasly on Alpine’s difficult start to the season
French driver Pierre Gasly commented on the very difficult start to the year experienced by the Alpine team, which came fourth in the constructor standings last year but is no longer performing with the French-French duo at the wheel of the A523.
Pierre Gasly is having a difficult first season with Alpine this year. Unfortunately for the Frenchman, the A523 cars are not performing well and the blue team will struggle to repeat last season’s fourth place finish in the constructors’ championship with Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.
The Normand came back, during this break period, to the beginning of his Alpine season, which he described as the most unlucky of his F1 career. Upon hearing these words, one can obviously only think of the collision between Pierre Gasly and his teammate Esteban Ocon at the Australian Grand Prix last March, causing the retirement of both Alpines.
« We haven’t been as competitive as we had aimed for at the beginning of the year », admitted the individual who is currently in 12th place in the championship, but who partly attributes these issues to bad luck. « There have been some missed opportunities, which had a snowball effect and a significant impact on the final results. », describes Gasly, while Alpine has only reached the podium once this year with Ocon in Monaco.
« There are obviously different areas for improvement »
On the other hand, the former Red Bull driver is experiencing less success, with his best placement being 7th, also in Monaco. Having joined Alpine this season, for his 6th season as a regular driver, after 5 years split between the Austrian parent company and its sister team Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri, Gasly is no longer able to compete for the top positions.
It must be said that the Alpine A523s are not up to par and they have (some) areas for improvement », such as (the) overall downforce ». He also notes that there is progress to be made in terms of (the) balance in the corners ».
« It’s not like there is one area weaker than the others. We’re just trying to strengthen the whole. And we haven’t really taken the step we were hoping for », concludes the winner of the Monza 2020 GP.
