Pierre Gasly qualified sixth (before being promoted to fifth) at the final qualifying session. After enduring difficult free practice sessions in Abu Dhabi, Alpine spent the rest of the afternoon tweaking their car for a positive starting position, a move that paid off.
Burning the midnight oil
Alpine experimented with plenty of setups, but none seemed to be working in the practice sessions of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Gasly was not optimistic the car had what it takes for a competitive spot.
The Frenchman was surprised at his Alpine A524’s competitiveness in qualifying puts him between the reigning champion Max Verstappen and last race’s pole-sitter George Russell.
When asked after the session, Gasly admits the qualifying is “probably one of the best quali.”
“Honestly, it’s probably one of the best quali. I felt pretty bad in the car throughout all the free practices. I think we were out of the top 10 and the car was not performing well.”
“We spent the whole week, all the free practices, changing setups every run. Nothing was really working and going into quali we made some big changes, which didn’t bring me any confidence, not knowing what was going to happen.”
“But in the end, big improvements and to qualify between the last pole sitter, George, who was on pole in Qatar and the world champion in front of us, just shows how much of a step we’ve made.”
Gasly over whom he’ll be racing tomorrow
At one point, Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg went fastest in qualifying before dropping into fourth. Gasly is happy Alpine has narrowed the gap to only around a tenth at the end.
“Nico is suddenly in pole, which was pretty impressive. They looked strong all weekend and I think they clearly had the upper hand on us.”
“I must say I’m very happy to have closed the gap that much. It was only a tenth in the end. I think we’re on for a good fight tomorrow.”
“I’m racing only one car, well, two cars. It’s quite clear the target. We have five points on them, and we’ve got to make sure they don’t outscore us by more than that. We’ll fight fair and square and that’s Formula 1. It doesn’t mean that we’re going to make life easy. You can fight hard, but fair and that’s what we’re planning. I’m sure it’s going to be an exciting battle.”
Gasly’s strategy in Abu Dhabi
Alpine must outsmart Haas’ strategy for the race and make sure the team has all the answers the competition is throwing at them.
“We’ll definitely make sure that we can cover all the strategy options. I mean, they’ve looked faster than us, but compared to FP2, I know that what I felt in quali was also a lot better than what I had in FP2. So, you know, it’s going to be a long race.”
“There is a start, there is a strategy, there are two different tires. You’re driving on medium, on hard. We will have some opportunities and hopefully, some faster cars behind us can also make their way back to the front and make sure they get their points out of them.”
Gasly is confident of a strong result based on his qualifying performance.
“You can never be overconfident, but looking at how we managed to improve in quali, I know we’re going to be in the fight. I know what’s going to be our limitation as well.”
Gasly on his new teammate, Jack Doohan
Shortly before the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend, Alpine announced that they would be dropping Esteban Ocon and replacing him with the team’s reserve driver and Gasly’s teammate for next year, Jack Doohan.
Gasly has some words for his teammate after qualifying last.
“Honestly, I think he’s been doing well. It’s unfortunate, you know, in the end in Q1, I think he had a bit of a poor out lap with the traffic and stuff, which didn’t make it easy for him. But to jump into the last weekend, trying to get a feel for the car, get it right, I think it was actually a pretty strong job.”
“Obviously, the target for him is to learn as much as possible for next season, but I think he’s done a good job.”
