Gasly expects normal service to resume for AlphaTauri in Spain
Pierre Gasly expects his AlphaTauri Formula 1 team to bounce back at this weekend’s Spanish GP after a difficult weekend in Portugal.


The Frenchman qualified fifth for the first two races in Bahrain and Imola, but had to settle for ninth on the grid in Portimao. In the race he lost a position, eventually claiming the final point with 10th place.
Gasly stressed that the Italian outfit knew that the many slow corners at the Algarve circuit would not favour its car.
“Well I would say it was the race we kind of expected,” he said when asked by Autosport.
“We finished pretty much where we expected – slightly better because I managed to pass Carlos [Sainz] in the end and get a point. So obviously it’s not much, but clearly the maximum we could expect from this weekend.
“It has been a hard one, we struggled quite a lot on this track with all the low-speed corners and it’s an area we knew we had to improve already since the winter test.
“And now we have the proof that we are struggling compared to our main competitors, and at least it gives us a clear direction of development.”

Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Gasly expects the AT02 to be more competitive in Barcelona, where the layout plays to the car’s strengths.
“Yeah I think so,” he said. “I think I’m confident we’re going to have slightly more pace than what we showed this weekend.
“It’s a lot more high-speed corners and medium-speed corners, but we’ll still have the last sector, which is quite tricky. But here [Portimao] you have a lot of corners in second and third gear, which is not our favourite, especially compared to Alpine, Ferrari and McLaren. So I think we should pick up a bit more pace next weekend.”
Gasly also acknowledged that close rival Alpine also demonstrated superior straightline performance in Portugal.
“It seems to me like today the Alpine was a bit like the Ducati in MotoGP for some reason – they were extremely fast in the straights, and they’re passing halfway through the straights.
Read Also:
“There are a couple of cars with a lot of straight line speed. I think last year on this track I remember there was quite a lot of overtaking as well, so Barcelona will be a lot more difficult, as we know, so I think it’s kind of similar. The midfield is quite tight, and that’s why we see some good battles, I guess.”
Gasly agreed that the slow corner performance is a particular concern for Monaco, the race after Spain.
“Obviously it is, it’s clearly one area where we’ve got to improve, and Monaco is coming pretty quickly, so I don’t think we’re going to have any major improvements or upgrades on the car for these tracks.
“So that’s the package we have, we need to find a way if we can change a bit the set up for this kind of conditions and corners, clearly there will be some work to do for these tracks.”
Expanding on the difference between the AT02 and last year’s AlphaTauri he added: “There is just slightly less grip so you’re sliding a bit more, you can’t carry the brakes into the corner as hard otherwise you’re locking.
“You can’t carry as much speed, otherwise the front is not holding, and the traction is slightly more tricky.
“We are not talking about much, but it’s a bit there and there. And then at the end of the lap you’re losing two or three tenths, and then at the end of 67 laps it’s 15 seconds, and that’s what we’ve got to find.”

Alonso feels too much being made of early results of F1 drivers at new teams
Can F1’s standout performer of 2021 keep up his charge?

Latest news
Magnussen still 'pinching myself' about Haas F1 comeback
Kevin Magnussen says he has gained a new appreciation for the privilege of being a Formula 1 driver over the course of his 2022 comeback season.
Wolff: Mercedes bounced "from depression to exuberance" in "painful" F1 season
Toto Wolff says the ranging emotions through Mercedes’ Formula 1 season so far has been “painful” at times, bouncing from “depression to exuberance” through its 2022 car struggles.
The inconvenient truth about F1’s ‘American driver’ dream
OPINION: The Formula 1 grid's wait for a new American driver looks set to continue into 2023 as the few remaining places up for grabs - most notably at McLaren - look set to go elsewhere. This is despite the Woking outfit giving tests to IndyCar aces recently, showing that the Stateside single-seater series still has some way to go to being seen as a viable feeder option for F1
Lundgaard: Vettel could expect “tough transition” to IndyCar
Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s Christian Lundgaard said that four-time Formula 1 champion Sebastian Vettel would face a hard task adapting to the demands of IndyCar if he wished to make the switch.
The inconvenient truth about F1’s ‘American driver’ dream
OPINION: The Formula 1 grid's wait for a new American driver looks set to continue into 2023 as the few remaining places up for grabs - most notably at McLaren - look set to go elsewhere. This is despite the Woking outfit giving tests to IndyCar aces recently, showing that the Stateside single-seater series still has some way to go to being seen as a viable feeder option for F1
How a bad car creates the ultimate engineering challenge
While creating a car that is woefully off the pace is a nightmare scenario for any team, it inadvertently generates the test any engineering department would relish: to turn it into a winner. As Mercedes takes on that challenge in Formula 1 this season, McLaren’s former head of vehicle engineering reveals how the team pulled of the feat in 2009 with Lewis Hamilton
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid