Why Gasly failed to convert Alpine’s best start this year into a points finish

2024 United States GP interactive data

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“We had much higher ambitions than finishing outside the points,” admitted Pierre Gasly after taking the chequered flag 12th in yesterday’s race.

Thanks to an upgraded car, a superb qualifying lap and George Russell’s crash, Gasly secured Alpine’s best starting position of the year so far with sixth in the grid. The team’s chances of at least finishing in the points received a further boost when Lewis Hamilton spun out in the other Mercedes on the second lap.

But Gasly’s race went awry once he exchanged the medium rubber he started on for a set of hards. He did so on lap 18, one lap after his closer pursuer, Kevin Magnussen, did the same. Both were doomed to finish outside the points as their teams misread the the race.

Given how quickly the medium rubber dropped off during the sprint race, and the hotter conditions on race day, teams went into the race expecting to pit twice. However the tyres stood up better than expected and the Safety Car period caused by Hamilton’s spin helped teams extend their opening stints.

Pierre Gasly, Alpine, Circuit of the Americas, 2024
A slow pit stop began trouble for Gasly
So after Haas and Alpine brought their best-placed drivers in on consecutive laps there was a pause in pit lane activity. It became clear a one-stopper was the way to go. Haas eventually brought Magnussen in for a second stop, though this appears to have influenced by a pit wall miscommunication.

Alpine left Gasly out. He had already been badly delayed by a slow pit stop, which cost him around four seconds, dropped him behind Magnussen, and cost him the chance to emerge from the pits ahead of Lance Stroll and Alexander Albon. He became stuck behind them, losing even more time, and once he cleared them Magnussen was now 10 seconds up the road.

After the race Gasly said he was “lacking pace on the hard tyre.” Even so, despite his early first pit stop and the fresh set of medium rubber waiting for him in the pits, Alpine decided against bringing him in. A late Safety Car would have been a godsend, but none came, and instead Gasly was passed by the one-stopping Franco Colapinto and Magnussen after the Haas driver’s second stop. That left him a disappointed 12th.

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“We had too many sub-optimal situations throughout the race,” Gasly admitted afterwards. “It looks like our rivals are just that bit quicker at the moment.”

Alpine failed to score a point for the fourth race in a row, but they did prevent Williams from extending their lead as much as they might have done. Colapinto held the fast lap as the race entered its final stages, but Alpine brought Esteban Ocon in for a fresh set of softs to take the time off him, though he finished 18th and couldn’t score it himself.

2024 United States Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2024 United States Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2024 United States Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2024 United States Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

Rank # Driver Car Lap time Gap Avg. speed (kph) Lap no.
1 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 1’37.330 203.91 53
2 43 Franco Colapinto Williams-Mercedes 1’37.611 0.281 203.33 46
3 63 George Russell Mercedes 1’37.656 0.326 203.23 42
4 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1’37.679 0.349 203.18 55
5 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Ferrari 1’37.763 0.433 203.01 42
6 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1’37.834 0.504 202.86 39
7 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1’37.883 0.553 202.76 42
8 30 Liam Lawson RB-Honda RBPT 1’38.091 0.761 202.33 54
9 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda RBPT 1’38.117 0.787 202.28 42
10 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1’38.210 0.880 202.09 56
11 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Renault 1’38.311 0.981 201.88 55
12 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas-Ferrari 1’38.404 1.074 201.69 51
13 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull-Honda RBPT 1’38.514 1.184 201.46 45
14 23 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes 1’39.084 1.754 200.3 54
15 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB-Honda RBPT 1’39.193 1.863 200.08 54
16 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 1’39.214 1.884 200.04 54
17 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Mercedes 1’39.261 1.931 199.95 52
18 24 Zhou Guanyu Sauber-Ferrari 1’39.272 1.942 199.92 53
19 77 Valtteri Bottas Sauber-Ferrari 1’40.575 3.245 197.33 53
20 44 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’48.064 10.734 183.66 1

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2024 United States Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2024 United States Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

Rank # Driver Team Complete stop time (s) Gap to best (s) Stop no. Lap no.
1 11 Sergio Perez Red Bull 23.58 1 26
2 4 Lando Norris McLaren 23.731 0.151 1 31
3 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 23.817 0.237 1 26
4 30 Liam Lawson RB 23.839 0.259 1 36
5 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Ferrari 23.963 0.383 1 21
6 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas 23.966 0.386 1 17
7 43 Franco Colapinto Williams 23.971 0.391 1 39
8 20 Kevin Magnussen Haas 24.087 0.507 2 38
9 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren 24.107 0.527 1 32
10 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine 24.156 0.576 1 31
11 22 Yuki Tsunoda RB 24.193 0.613 1 18
12 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 24.228 0.648 1 25
13 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 24.247 0.667 1 26
14 23 Alexander Albon Williams 24.391 0.811 2 33
15 24 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 24.433 0.853 1 13
16 77 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 24.439 0.859 1 15
17 27 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 24.5 0.92 1 27
18 24 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 24.89 1.31 2 35
19 31 Esteban Ocon Alpine 26.175 2.595 2 51
20 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 26.399 2.819 1 27
21 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine 28.228 4.648 1 18
22 63 George Russell Mercedes 29.327 5.747 1 40
23 23 Alexander Albon Williams 34.983 11.403 1 3

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2024 United States Grand Prix

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Author information

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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4 comments on “Why Gasly failed to convert Alpine’s best start this year into a points finish”

  1. Thanks for focusing on something other than the front of the race – it’s probably more interesting tactically in the midfield because there are more variables and more variation in who the rivals are. There are so many stories in a grand Prix, it’s nice to investigate some of the less well told ones.

    1. Nice view of the midfield battle, I love getting this sort of data to look at.

      Agree with the title, it should have been the other way around: “Why Alphine failed to convert Gasly’s best start this year…”

      Both Alphine and Haas was more caught up in the other teams strategy than executing their own plan.

      Best example being Magnussen’s second stint of only 21 laps on a hard tyre he radioed worked great for him (the shortest hard stint besides Zhou’s closing laps in last place).

  2. KMag was also behind Albon and Stroll after the pits but he was able to pull away from Gasly after the stop.

    The problem was that Haas foolishly went for aggressive strategy KMag came on lap17 so Gasly and Yuki also followed him next lap which was also a mistake. Gasly was some 2secs behind KMag but some 2secs ahead of Yuki. Haas later realized it and brought him to pits for medium. At lap 41 Yuki spun when he was some 1sec behind Gasly. Colapinto and KMag went past and him and later both overtook Gasly as well. Just how Lawson did with the medium. KMag stop was a mistake caused created this chain reaction for the other two in the midfield as well. I would especially be mad if I was KMag. He came to pits on lap17 and Nico on lap27 and apart from Russell and Perez who were anyways going to get them. He finished ahead of the rest of the midfield.

  3. Coventry Climax
    22nd October 2024, 13:34

    So while the entire article -correctly- explains how the team judged their sunday raceday wrong strategy wise, and likely also erroneously responded to Magnussen pitting, the title tells us it was only ‘Gasly failing to’ for not ending up higher?

    I’m not a specific Gasly fan or any such, but this is clearly the wrong title. ‘Team Gasly failing to’ would have been a much better choice of words, because I recognise Gasly himself obviously is part of the team.

Comments are closed.