“It’s hard to have answers”

It was with a beautiful seventh place that Pierre Gasly left the Bahrain Grand Prix, last week. The Frenchman had even been able to qualify his Alpine in fifth position on the starting grid, before being promoted in fourth place thanks to the penalties of the two Mercedes.

After the race, Gasly was particularly happy with the performances of his A525, which notably knew how to keep Max Verstappen behind him for more than 15 laps, before the Dutch exceeds him in the last loop of the event. Jack Doohan finished 14th, but he was so long on the way to join the Top 10.

This good result can however surprise in view of the outcome of previous weekends, where the French team had found itself behind its competitors and struggled, for example, to get out of Q1. Thus, for Gasly, this is one of the main points to approach in the coming weeks: understanding.

“During winter tests, we saw that the car worked well in Bahrain”He said this Thursday in Djeddah. “Obviously, this is the only sample we had at that time, so we thought that we could reproduce this type of performance during the first weekends, which was not really the case.”

“It is not as if we were miles in Australia, where we managed to reach Q3. In Suzuka, we were almost there, but in general we did not feel as well [que pendant les tests de pré-saison]. And then, in Bahrain, I was able to put the car back where I had left it [pendant les essais de pré-saison].”

“Now it’s analysis”added the French. “What we will see in a few days. It is quite difficult to have all the answers, but I think that in the coming weeks, before Miami, I hope that we can better understand why the car worked as it did in these conditions and which, in a way, did not really favor us during the first races.”

Gasly predicts a difficult weekend in Djeddah

Asked about his prospects for the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia, Gasly remains unconvinced to be able to repeat her Sakhir result on the rapid and narrow circuit of Djeddah.

“We know that these are tracks where things could be a little more delicate and a little more difficult for us”added the French. “But at the same time we know with which we are fighting and we will fight with it.”

“I think that on paper, we know, we know that this track is quite sensitive, but, yes, now it’s up to us to be as competitive as possible and we hope that we can still do something this weekend.”

Interview by Filip Cleeren