Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, Red Bull Ring, 2022

AlphaTauri “desperately” need upgrades after “disaster” weekend, urges Gasly

2022 Austrian Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly despaired at AlphaTauri’s lack of pace in Austria, saying the team needs to upgrade its car.

Gasly finished 15th, followed home by team mate Yuki Tsunoda in 16th.

“The whole weekend was a disaster, apart from qualifying, concluded Gasly, who qualified 10th for Saturdays sprint race, but fell to the back of the pack at the start after tangling with Lewis Hamilton.

“We were nowhere in terms of pace,” he said. “I tried to do everything I could inside the car, but at the moment there’s just nothing to do. So I think we desperately need these upgrades on the car to be able to get any decent result.”

Gasly had a series of setbacks during Sunday’s grand prix. He received a penalty for multiple track limit violations, which he said made little difference to his result. “It’s the same rule for everyone. I didn’t respect it, so I got penalised – my fault. I saw quite a lot of guys getting black-and-white flags.

“I think it was better in the past without these track limits. Anyway, you can’t go wider with a double kerb, but at the end of the day whatever rule they set, we’ve got to respect it.”

Gasly made contact with Sebastian Vettel during the race, which earned him a further penalty. “I try to fight as hard as I can. I took a penalty so I guess I’m the one to blame,” he said.

“At the same time, you know that when you are fighting there side-by-side, it’s always a risk, I think we’ve seen it in the past. It wasn’t intentional, but unfortunate for Sebastian.”

He said AlphaTauri’s chance of better results hinges on upgrades which are due to arrive at his home race next week. The team had “no pace” last weekend. “I mean nowhere.”

“You look at Yuki, you look at myself, even the strategy we lost a position when we boxed, but at the end of the day we just have no pace,” he explained.

“You can do whatever you want, any strategy you want, with the speed we have at the moment. [We] just can’t keep going like this.

“So we need to reset. We should have some new parts come in and hopefully they come for France and we can show a better pace there.”

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2022 Austrian Grand Prix

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Author information

Hazel Southwell
Hazel is a motorsport and automotive journalist with a particular interest in hybrid systems, electrification, batteries and new fuel technologies....
Claire Cottingham
Claire has worked in motorsport for much of her career, covering a broad mix of championships including Formula One, Formula E, the BTCC, British...

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6 comments on “AlphaTauri “desperately” need upgrades after “disaster” weekend, urges Gasly”

  1. Yes, it looks like they are somewhat on the backfoot with the car currently. But the last few races they have also been hampered by driver error, some of that might be caused by overdriving, but not all of it.

  2. If only Gasly could leave. 2 new teams cant come soon enough

  3. The AT has always been slow. They just happen to have a good PU. One dimensional tracks expose bad cars.

  4. Gasly can help by not hitting cars. It yeah they are going backwards.

    But generally this year I feel like the field is widening not narrowing. Williams, Aston Martin, AT, even Alfa have really just fallen off the back. Mercedes even when half a second down on race pace can race from last to 4th this year. Anyone remember when the differential wind tunnel allowances were going to see Williams vault to the front?

    1. Yup. I was thinking that Pierre going 3 hits in 3 events points to an upgrade in the driver department. No need to change personnel, just get him in a less “desperately” mood.

    2. It seemed close at the beginning, but has become like the old days. I think the bottom teams should have unlimited wind tunnel time. They’re likely not going to use much more time anyway since it is budget and not time restraining their progress. This would actually be a good time for the owners of teams like Williams to overspend in order to make themselves attractive to all the companies looking to perform buyouts.

      Teams like Sauber are getting looked at heavily for buyouts because they haven’t been seen as a joke, which sadly is what Williams looked like for a two year period. And even though they’ve basically gotten close to other back markers, they haven’t had enough good performances to shed that image.

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