Spanish GP: Preview - AlphaTauri

17/05/2022
NEWS STORY

Pierre Gasly: "I am looking forward to starting the European part of the season and even if the result in Miami was not what we were looking for, there were some positives to take away from that weekend. We got both cars into Q3, 7th and 9th, making it the best Qualifying so far this season. The race was difficult because, from very early on, I had a big hole in the floor, losing quite a bit of downforce, but even so I could fight for seventh or eighth place with the Alpines, which was encouraging. It was going quite well in fact, until my contact with Fernando. That ruined my race, and it was very disappointing, as we'd had a solid weekend up to that point. We deserved some points, so it was a shame, but the performance is clearly there and there's no reason why we can't have some good results in the upcoming races.

"Now we come to Barcelona, the sixth race of the season, where I finished ninth in 2020 and 10th last year. It's always an important weekend, because you get a clear picture of the performance of the various cars and where each team is in relation to the others. We should get an idea of where everyone is, especially in the midfield, which is currently very tight: sometimes we're a bit nearer the front and then in the space of just two tenths of a second, you can drop right back.

"We know it's difficult to overtake at this circuit and it will remain the same, even with these new cars, because of the nature of the track. But it's hard to predict, so let's wait and see what happens. For us it will be important to qualify well, near the front because I'd be surprised if there was ten times more overtaking than before! As a team, we just have to keep working the way we have been up until now and I'm sure that will pay off in terms of results."

Yuki Tsunoda: "Miami was a mixed weekend. At first there was a big gap to my team-mate in free practice, but I managed to progress and that meant I was able to get through to Q3, which was a good result for me and the team, even if it was a bit unexpected. In the race, I lost a lot of positions in the early part and we couldn't put it together, but overall there were some positives from the weekend.

"I was back home in Italy for my birthday and I had an enjoyable day in Milan. Now we will spend some time in Europe, starting with the Barcelona track where we began our winter testing at the end of February. Of course, conditions will be very different and much warmer this time. Even without that, it is one of the European tracks I know best and in 2020, I finished fourth there in both the Sprint and the Feature Formula 2 races. It is a very technical track with a wide range of different types of corners and speeds, high, medium and low. It is a real test of the car. All the teams know the track very well, so I expect it will be very tight in the midfield where we are racing and I am confident we can perform quite well this weekend. However, I think we still need more car development before we can race really consistently every weekend. I think we can make progress in Barcelona, hopefully have a good result, ending in the points, but I am not expecting it to be easy."

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Published: 17/05/2022
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