Photo Credit: BWT Alpine F1 Team
After qualifying in P7 for the Monaco Grand Prix, a P7 finish might seem like a decent result for Pierre Gasly, however he was in sombre mood after the race, commenting on how his teammate Esteben Ocon finished on the podium in P3.
The 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner was left baffled by the decision not to stay out on the hard tyres he began the race with. Had he done so when the rain started to fall, a podium was his for the taking as he was ahead of George Russell before making his first stop to mediums.
“I’m a bit confused with the decisions he and his team made,” said Gasly.
“On my side, I’m obviously disappointed and a bit confused with the decisions we made, because we were P3 at the time with the rain coming, so I was kind of rubbing my hands because it was the perfect scenario for us, and then we decided to box for two laps with the [slicks] before we had to switch to the inters.”
Furthermore the French driver said how he was told to manage the tyres with the threat of rain, only for his team to pit him around 5 laps before the rain started to cause mayhem.
“As soon as I was running in P3, I went green, managed to push more on the tyres and I was feeling good, and I told them ‘I want to go long’, especially because the rain was supposed to come as they told me, so I was like, ‘Okay, let’s go, let’s stay out’.
“So, at that time, I feel like we had a P3, P4 for the team and it could have been better, but it’s part of the sport… They obviously have some information on the pit wall, which I don’t have. We’ll review how we could have done better, but I feel there were slightly more points available.”
Gasly stressed that he doesn’t want to criticise his team too much and there are many positives to take.
“At the end, I don’t want to share so many frustrations, because it’s still a very positive day for the whole team, and looking at the overall performance this weekend, it’s been a lot better than what we’ve shown this year, so hopefully it can be the proper kick-off for the season, and I really want to be fighting these Mercedes and Ferraris more often in the coming weekends.”
With the Spanish Grand Prix only a few days away, it’s the perfect time for Gasly to push on and get momentum into his season.
