Gasly Boosted as Alpine Shows Strong Progress in Austin

Gasly expresses satisfaction with Alpine’s progress after a strong Q3 return in Austin, highlighting renewed potential for upcoming races.

Pierre Gasly is pleased to have seen Alpine F1 rebound in Austin, delivering an impressive qualifying performance. While he values the regained one-lap speed, he bemoans the imperfect operational aspect of the race itself.

“The best qualifying of the year. So, I’d say there are positive takeaways from this weekend. You know, just a few months ago, we started from the back row in Bahrain,” recalls the French driver.

“Yet, we kept focused on developing the package we have, and, you know, last week we ended up reaching seventh place in qualifying. So we’re very pleased to see that the car is progressing well.”

“On the other hand, Sunday’s race didn’t go well; it wasn’t executed properly. Unfortunately, we lost quite a bit of time in the pit stop, struggled significantly with the hard tyre, and lost the good start we had.”

“We’re quite disappointed not to have been able to turn that strong qualifying into points, but at least there’s some hope, you know, encouraging signs that we’ll be able to fight a bit more towards the front in the remaining races.”

The A524 received a substantial upgrade package in Austin, and Gasly elaborates on the changes: “In terms of overall potential, it’s just about having a bit more speed, performing a bit better on braking, and getting just a bit more grip. So I’d say the balance is still there, with a few points to improve here and there that we need to work on.”

“But like all cars, you know, in the pit lane, no one’s going to get a perfect balance, but in terms of overall potential, you know, I was pleased to see in Q1, Q2, and Q3 that we were able to put in good laps to stay consistently in the top 10, which is really encouraging.”

Asked about the prospect of getting Alpine back into the points by season’s end, Gasly remains cautious: “It won’t be easy. I think, looking at Haas, the top four is out of reach.”

“But after that, it’s actually a very close battle between Haas, AlphaTauri (sic), we’ve seen Williams performing really well at the moment, and I still think we’re probably just missing that little bit to be there consistently, but we’ll have our chances.”

“There are five races left. I’m sure there’ll be one or two circuits where we can be competitive. For the team, and personally, it’s important for me to score a few more points before the year ends.”