It has been a tough beginning of the season for Gasly, with him and his team both not able to score even a point in the first three rounds of the season after an even harder off season marked by personnel changes and troubles with the new car project.
The French driver looked back at his last round in Australia, and especially how it compares to the performance Alpine had had last season, expressing his disappointment with the way the season is looking like so far.
Gasly had been running in the points early on as a lot of the medium runners up the front boxed early, and he was tracking Nico Hülkenberg closely before the VSC.
“Start 17th, finish 13th. I think we were running in P8 at some point, and we would have liked the red flag at that moment.
“But that was a bit what we tried, we try to put ourselves in a decent track position at some point in the race hoping for things to happen, because that’s what we need, really.”
Gasly however is pretty hopeful for the upcoming races, as in his opinion the upgrades which are set to come later in the campaign will be the defining factor to their season.
“So apart from that, I don’t think we can do any better at the moment. It’s going be the same speech as the last weekend, but we’ve got to be patient until we get upgrades because we’re just too far away from a points finish at the moment.”
2023 had been a better year for both Alpine drivers, having scored a podium each with the A523 and ending the season sixth in the Constructors’ Championship by a comfortable margin.
This season will unfortunately be a wildly different story, as Gasly compared his 2024 race at Albert Park to last year’s one:
“Last year at the same time of the year I was racing with Carlos for P4. This year he is winning the race, and I’m in 13th, so not really having much fun, but I know and we know the position we are in.
“And I know we’re not going to stay there, and I trust the team to find the solutions to improve the performance. But we need more performance to be able to fight back in the points.”
The former Red Bull driver’s dedication to racing hasn’t been fazed by the hardships he’s experiencing at the moment:
“Once I’m in the car, I’m like an animal. I want to do the best I can with the package that I have in my hands.”
However, it’s not enough for Gasly, who wishes for Alpine to return towards the front and feel the satisfaction of getting a great result.
“But even when we do an amazing lap and we are in P14 or do a really good race and you’re P13, it’s not the same really satisfaction as if you do a really good race and finish either on the top step or P5 with the package you have.”
Aware of the amount of effort and work the Enstone based team has been putting in to try and close the gap to the top 10, the driver of car number 10 is ready to wait for the results, even if it won’t be an easy fix.
“So as we learn and we move forward, that’s the most important thing. I know the team is working really hard, and I can see some of the directions they’re taking to improve the package we’ve got, and I know we’ll get better. But it’s just got to take time.”
