Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, Bahrain International Circuit, 2021

Gasly’s Red Bull experience paying off at AlphaTauri – Egginton

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In the round-up: AlphaTauri technical director Jody Egginton says the experience Pierre Gasly gained at Red Bull is paying off since his move to AlphaTauri.

What they say

Egginton is pleased with the team’s combination of the experience Gasly and newcomer Yuki Tsunoda for 2021:

For me, coming from the viewpoint of the technical side, [Gasly] is fantastic. He’s a good reference. We work well with him. He’s gained a lot of experience because he’s been elsewhere, he’s come back and we have a good relationship with him. The engineers understand him and he’s a fantastic team player, so that’s good.

Having a rookie on the other side of the garage is also good, to have Pierre there he’s got a good reference and he can support him in any number of ways. He’s got a benchmark, so that’s good as well.

So we’re super-happy to have [Gasly]. As a driver last year he did a fantastic job and he’s still improving and getting better. And he works well with our team. We know each other well enough that it’s a benefit when trying to develop a car and for Yuki it will help him as he tries to develop as a driver. So it’s all good, really, that mix is good. Experienced drivers are always good to have in the team, but we know Pierre and that’s an added benefit.

Quotes: Dieter Rencken

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Comment of the day

Is three days too little testing for Formula 1 regardless of the circumstances?

If you take a step back it is pretty ridiculous to have any sport where you can only practice for three days a year.

Simulators and general fitness are fine but it must be strange for the drivers to hardly get any practice outside of race weekends, and even those they want to cut back.
@Glynh

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On this day in F1

Senna overcame a late-race drama to finally won his home race today in 1991
  • 30 years ago today Ayrton Senna won his home race for the first time, despite his McLaren sticking in sixth gear over the final laps, as rain began to fall

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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18 comments on “Gasly’s Red Bull experience paying off at AlphaTauri – Egginton”

  1. I also found the interactions in Drive to Survive seemed completely bonkers, especially filming Perez playing cards with people while wearing a mask. Physically handling items touched by others moments previously while in close proximity kind of made the mask a pointless exercise. It was probably not against any law wherever they were but clearly it was a weird choice.

    Obviously we all saw the non existent bubbles for group photos and wild celebrations too. At the end of the day, there didn’t seem a huge outbreak in the paddock all year so it wasn’t a huge issue but that was probably through the extensive testing rather than social distancing being strictly enforced.

    I don’t see why there should be an issue having more written press provided the testing is done as per the teams. Obviously that might mean they need to pay a fee to cover that expense.

    1. @slowmo Those people were most likely part of his bubble rather than outsiders in the Villa he stayed.
      The group photos and celebrations also only included people within a team bubble, so no problem.

    2. I think Joe’s point is that F1 would rather the written press were not there, covid or no.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YbCxlJtN0o&ab_channel=MissedApexF1

      Joe last night.

    3. It seems today that COVID is primarily transmitted through the air and not from surfaces…so the mask and playing cards aren’t entirely contradictory and Checo already had the virus and is/was probably immune….but your larger point about a lack of virus big picture thinking is totally valid.

  2. About that Joe Saward tweet: there is some selection bias going on here. DTS is not an accurate representation of everything that goes on in the paddock. It mostly focuses on the drivers and team principals. I imagine they (or some of them, more likely) ignore the bubbles not because they are allowed to, but because nobody really has the authority to stop them. It’s probably a different story for the rest of the paddock. Also, Netflix will always focus on the interesting interactions, like Vasseur and Steiner roughhousing. People respecting social distancing guidelines and politely greeting each other from a safe distance doesn’t make for very exciting TV.

    1. It’s a fair point as clearly some stories are manufactured for the show too. I felt the Sainz and Norris “rivalry” was very forced for example and didn’t feel like it reflected the partnership we saw all year. The sensationalist editing of the Grosjean incident too where they cut to drivers in the pits staring at screens then back to the fire as if to suggest drivers were watching the pictures live.

      Its not really a documentary but more a lens into the world of F1 with some creative story telling. I like it for what it is but its not particular good as a show to summarise the year in F1, it just tells some smaller stories that went on that year. I do enjoy seeing some of the more candid moments that we miss in interviews on TV though so it has its niche for me.

      1. I like it for what it is but its not particular good as a show to summarise the year in F1, it just tells some smaller stories that went on that year.

        @slowmo
        That’s indeed the strengths of DTS. It’s still a documentary with smart editing to bring moments together. We all know that the emotions and small conversations didn’t happen in exactly the order as presented, but it never became too sensationalistic IMO (a David Attenborough documentary is also not an exact reflection of the timelines what happens in nature).

      2. I’d concur – I largely enjoyed it – Cyril didn’t come out of it very well, I felt. Unable to separate his emotions form the Danny Ric situation who then seemed to go on to prove he was committed to the end. Missus on the other hand called it a day at episode 8 saying she hadn’t enjoyed it as much as the previous 2 seasons as she felt it hadn’t summed up the season very well.

        The Grosjean sequence was a bit out of order for me – to someone on the outside that hadn’t witnessed the incident as it happened would have been forgiven for thinking a) he was in there for a longer time than he was and b) that F1 essentially enforced the other drivers to watch it as it happened. Though the constant replaying at the track seemed excessive at the time. I was surprised at how much it still affected me emotionally though.

        I hadn’t given any of the Covid bubble stuff any thought but perhaps I was too wrapped up in F1 catch up!

        1. I thought Cyril came out of it quite well. He was clearly surprised by the jump to the immediate competition wasand torched at his first press release where he expressed his disappointment and didn’t thank Daniel or whatever but (probably due to Daniel’s determination to make the best of it) they had a working relationship at the first race and a very effective & close relationship very soon after.
          On the other hand the editors weren’t ever kind to Toto.

        2. On Cyril, I’m French and he’s the only one I can’t understand speaking English. He makes no effort, I guess it was the same about his position in the team.

    2. @aesto Seeing as Joe Saward attended every race last season (one of a handful of journalists to do so) I think he is well qualified to comment and to be annoyed by the stance the FIA/FOM took re the written press.

    3. Seems some drivers refuse to work with Netflix like Max (Verstappen) who said they use tapes from years ago to fabricate scenes the main problem.

      That could be the start of the end of the series?

      1. I don’t know if this is why Max chose not to work with Netflix, though I do remember him expressing some annoyance with his portrayal as a villain to Danny in the first season. It could also well be he had an exclusive contract for the documentary: “Max Verstappen: Whatever it Takes” that aired in The Netherlands in December, for instance.

        All in all, I don’t think it’s necessarily a refusal and all, but rather which stories make the most sense to focus on and which drivers give the most interesting talking head interviews. This is why you see so much more of Horner, Steiner, etc. than for instance a Fred Vasseur. I bet next season there will be an extensive episode on Yuki Tsunoda for instance, given how chatty he seems to be in interviews.

  3. He isn’t really going to be fighting with the fellow rookies, given the car advantage over them, LOL.
    I’ve noticed recently that a ‘report comment’ option has appeared alongside the reply button. Maybe ‘edit’ someday.

    1. Correct, it sounds strange but where that really his own words fight the other rookies? I thought he said he has to finish in front of them because Alpha Tauri is much faster then Haas.

      Lets hope we get edit soon

      1. That’s better for the grammar mistakes!

  4. That Rokit branding from above looks great. But how often do cars get filmed from above?!

    1. Given that they race on a lot of ovals with banked corners, it makes sense to design a livery that looks good from above I think.

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