Misfortunes continued into the F1 Chinese GP for Alpine and Pierre Gasly as their attempt to score their first points of the season failed once again. For the second week running, he finished the race just outside the points in P11. Whilst the Frenchman certainly had eyes set on points coming into China, an early exit in qualifying for both Alpines made this task ever more challenging.
Realising after a disastrous Saturday for the Enstone-based team, Gasly revealed some changes were made to their set-ups post-sprint and was hopeful going into Sunday. However, the Frenchman’s misfortunes did not end there.
Subsequently after the race, Gasly was disqualified from the Chinese GP, alongside Scuderia Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, as their cars were found to have breached minimum weight requirements.
Eager for first points
Leaving the Chinese GP, Gasly and the Enstone-based team will be awaiting to score their first points of the season. Having struggled with the car all weekend, Gasly and teammate, Jack Doohan, struggled to make their way through a tight midfield often fighting for that last point-scoring spot.
In a tight midfield, the Frenchman revealed he was hopeful for a point-scoring finish in China when talking in the print media zone.
“It looked like we were in contention for that top 10 finish. We were in the group for that last point. I think the midfield was extremely tight, but we’re probably not on the best side of it this weekend.”
Struggling to find one-lap pace during qualifying, Gasly and Doohan started the race in P16 and P18 respectively. A weekend which saw endless problems for Alpine, Gasly remained positive after salvaging the results of a poor qualifying.
“We still managed to recover after a difficult quali, so I think there are positives to take. We got to work on these small details, but in such a tight midfield that can make the difference between points and no points.”
A learning curve with positives to take away for Alpine
Evidently, a dip in performance since pre-season testing for Alpine was clear in the first two weekends of the season. Despite the setbacks from the weekend, the Frenchman and team needs to find more answers to the A525 moving forwards.
Having tested various set-ups throughout the weekend, Gasly acknowledged the team’s journey to solving the issues with their car.
“I think we know what didn’t really click in terms of the car, it’s quite clear.
“The reasons why yet, I don’t think we can fully explain everything. But clearly I think in the race we also played with a few things and I think we got some good learning as well. I’m confident we’ll find some moments for the next weekend.”
When asked about qualifying, Gasly placed a strong emphasis on the need to work on the finer details in order to improve. The Frenchman stated that moving forwards, the team needs to review their performance each week in order to be able to fight towards the front.
“To be fair, we’ve got to review. Its extremely tight. I know there are a few details all added up together, but you can always find time there and there. And we’ll try to fine tune that.”
Eyes set on a better weekend in Suzuka
Three free practice sessions back next week would certainly allow teams to experiment and find the ideal setups for the weekend. Gasly is hopeful they will be able to find more performance. With multiple penalties that went the way of Doohan, and a disqualification for the Frenchman himself, Alpine would hope to have a good weekend in Suzuka and hopefully take home their first points of the season.
