Pierre Gasly admits he is amazed by the performance of rivals Haas this weekend.
Romain Grosjean out-qualified Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo and has been promoted to fifth on the starting grid following Sebastian Vettel’s penalty.
“Haas was just… I’m shocked, actually, because from one weekend to another… we know they can be so fast but that fast is quite impressive,” Gasly told media including RaceFans after qualifying.“And Renault, they are consistently both cars in the top 10. They have a strong package, we are just slightly behind.”
Gasly said the team did expect some improvement in performance from the Mercedes and Ferrari-powered cars after Friday due to their specialised qualifying engine modes.
“I think Ferrari and Mercedes just increased the power for qualifying,” he said.
“I just quickly had a look at the GPS compared to the Sauber and Force India. In the straight they seemed to be turning their engine up a little bit compared to us and that’s where they seem to do a bigger gap compared to us from Friday to Saturday.”
Renault has introduced a qualifying mode for its engine this weekend, though it is not as potent as the one used by the front-running teams. Gasly’s Honda power unit does not have an equivalent setting.
“Hopefully we will have [one] soon,” he said. “At the moment I think that’s where they make the difference compared to us.”
Gasly admitted the team has found it difficult to judge how much of an effect its latest aerodynamic update has made this weekend. “Honestly at the moment we cannot really tell the difference,” he said.
“I think we need to analyse a bit more deeply because on that track we have so much traffic. One lap you are behind another car, another lap you are low. And then you are comparing between every laps, [it’s] difficult to have a clear read about it.”
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