Gasly urges AlphaTauri development as midfield margins close

Pierre Gasly has urged AlphaTauri to keep developing hard to stay in touch with its midfield rivals and revealed the team has some ‘exciting’ new parts due to arrive for the next race at Imola.

Gasly finished ninth at the last race in Australia following an eighth-place result in Saudi Arabia but the French driver hinted at concern over the steps forward in pace made by McLaren and Alpine in Melbourne.

“I think overall, compared to our main competitors, Australia was slightly harder,” he said. “McLaren made a big step forward, Alpine as well, and I think we can be pleased with these two points.

“It’s only the third race of the year and obviously the car is going to develop over the next few weeks so I trust in the team and I trust in the upgrades they are going to bring.

“We should have a couple of new parts on the car and it’s not like we are dead slow, you know. I managed to get a good start, running in P9 behind Esteban and after that, we just got unlucky with the safety car.

“I dropped to 14th so from there obviously, it’s difficult. But I don’t think we are missing much but we definitely need to come with some development if we are going to keep up with the other guys.”

Gasly conscious of development race

AlphaTauri is currently eighth of the ten teams in the championship with 10 points, two behind surprise package Haas and three behind the equally surprising Alfa Romeo.

The Italian team finished sixth in the championship last year, comfortably ahead of Haas and Alfa Romeo and also Williams and Aston Martin, with just 15 points separating it from fifth-placed Alpine.

New regulations have mixed up the field this year and asked if it feels good to see developments coming through ready for the first European race of the season at Imola, Gasly said: “Big time. Personally, I am very excited to see what it brings.

“It’s obviously a new car, new regulations, we know that this season is all about development. The teams that are going to manage to develop the car faster than others will have a better season.

“I think it’s a big test for us as a team and hopefully it brings the performance we expect.”

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