By Luke-John Buckle
Pierre Gasly endured a weekend of contrasting emotions on his Alpine debut in Bahrain finishing ninth after starting at the back of the grid.
The Frenchman suffered a Q1 exit after his fastest lap – one that wasn’t quick enough to get through to Q2 – was removed for a track limits infringement.
Gasly is embarking on a new journey in F1 outside of the Red Bull programme and AlphaTauri. His first experience with a factory F1 team.
The 27-year-old explained after the Grand Prix that he was adamant after qualifying that scoring points was the only option for him in Bahrain.
“I was so upset last night that I was like, ‘There is no other way [option] than getting points tomorrow otherwise I’ll be pissed for two weeks’.
“But I think we definitely knew the top four would be out of reach even if we qualified in our position, so I think P9 is where we were about to finish.
“I would have got [eighth-place finisher Valtteri] Bottas with a better qualifying so that’s the only thing. It was the best recovery [we could achieve] from P20.
“I know that from race after race, we’ll learn from each other with the team and they’ll understand what car balance I like, what stuff they can do from session to session, we’ll understand each other better. It’s definitely a good base to work from.”
When switching to a new team, drivers usually take a few rounds to get fully up to speed and Gasly knows the Alpine A523 has the potential to regularly challenge for points.
“It’s very surprising for me to go through all sorts of emotions, right? It’s not fun otherwise,” Gasly joked when asked about going on an emotional rollercoaster in Bahrain.
“If we can get that joker [the bad qualifying result] out of the way for the rest of the season that will be nice. We’ve figured out what went wrong yesterday and I’m quite confident. It’s definitely very positive if I can get back into the points from P20.
“We know if we start in the right position, I think there is definitely some bigger points to fight for and I know the pace will just get better and better as the races go on.”
Gasly explained he was hindered a lot floundering in traffic in the opening stages but he is feeling positive ahead of the upcoming races.
“[I] lost a lot of time in the traffic at the start of the race, so starting in the right position should give us definitely more chances, and I am definitely optimistic for the coming races,” he concluded.
