It has been quite a difficult month for the French driver. After being unable to start the British GP because of gearbox gremlins, and had to retire from the Hungarian round due to an hydraulic issue, Gasly was finally able to end a race, even if it was outside of the top 10.
Starting from P12, the top ten appeared to be quite close, but instead the Alpine driver had to deal with a number of different issues which left him rather frustrated with his weekend and the previous events heading on to the summer break.
Gasly explained in more details the engine issue which hampered him, claiming he was losing 0.7s a lap because of it.
The 28-year-old crossed the line in P14, promoted to P13 following George Russell’s disqualification. He finished just under 10s away from the points.
“We were terrible down the straights. It was supposed to be a couple of kph, and I ended up losing 7 tenths every lap with some engine temperature issue.
“It’s just very frustrating. I just keep having problems on top of problems.
“The sum up of the last three weekends, the steering was bent for the whole race, I picked up the wrong strategy, so we just do way too many mistakes as a team.”
“It’s been a tough start of the season. But we scored 10 points in the first part of the year, and we must do a lot better in the second part of the year.
“Yeah, the engine was completely off the whole afternoon, so we need to check with the guys why we struggled so much,” he added.
On the other side of the garage, it ended up being a positive round as Esteban Ocon was moved back up to P9 following George Russell’s DSQ. The driver of car 31 looked quick all weekend.
Another factor which made life more difficult for the 2020 Italian GP winner was the pit strategy, which saw him stop twice, on laps 10 and 29 for hards. With Aston Martin pulling off a 1-stop, it allowed Alonso to beat Ocon, with Stroll just ahead of Albon and Gasly.
“I think we had a plan, but we need to review why we haven’t picked up the right one with any of the cars, so we’re obviously not the only ones to have done that. But yeah, that is something we need to improve.”
Asked if more problems might stem from the departure of Bruno Famin from the French team, Gasly denied, while also being extremely thankful for his honesty.
“No, I think the goals are clear as a team. There are obviously changes and a lot of talks in the paddock, in the media, etc, but I don’t think it takes any focus away from the team.
“Still, as I mentioned yesterday, I want to thank Bruno for his work and the transparency and honesty he’s had for the time we’ve had together.”
“But yeah, obviously it doesn’t change the target for the team.
