Gasly hanging Imola hopes on AlphaTauri updates

Henry Valantine 11 Apr 2022 4:00 PM

Pierre Gasly on the driver's parade. Melbourne April 2022.

Having appeared less competitive in 2022 so far, Pierre Gasly is looking to AlphaTauri’s planned upgrades at Imola to kick-start their season.

AlphaTauri only have 10 points to their name after three races this season, which leaves them down in P8 in the Constructors’ Championship – a far cry from Gasly’s 2021 performances that saw him regularly battling at the head of the midfield.

The Frenchman was one of the drivers affected by unfortunate timing when the Safety Car was deployed in Australia, with those around him ‘pitting’ more cheaply – eventually dropping him down to P14.

He was able to climb back up into the points as the race progressed, taking ninth place in what eventually became a decent afternoon for the AlphaTauri driver.

how good was this battle? 😤 a biiiig send from @PierreGASLY for the w 👊 pic.twitter.com/PX3ywJZrKU

— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) April 10, 2022

But that said, he hopes to see the team’s fortunes improve with an upgrade package coming at their home race at Imola in the next round.

“It’s a positive start to the season, but we will continue to develop the car over the next few weeks,” Gasly told reporters after the race, quoted by Motorsport.com Germany.

“I’m really looking forward to the update at Imola. Hopefully it will bring us the performance we expect from it.

“This weekend, compared to our main rivals, it was a bit more difficult for us because McLaren and Alpine made a big step forward.”

Gasly added he does not feel AlphaTauri are far away from the teams in front, with the congested midfield battle having produced close racing throughout the season so far.

“I think we can still be happy with two points, especially because we had bad luck with the Safety Car,” Gasly said.

“It’s not like we are incredibly slow. After all, I was running ninth behind Ocon before we had bad luck with the Safety Car and dropped back to 14^th, but it’s clear we need some upgrades to keep up with the others.”

On the other side of the garage, Yuki Tsunoda had a difficult time of things all weekend as he struggled for pace, coming away with no points and two reprimands to his name from the stewards.

“There wasn’t any pace today,” he said. “We struggled for the whole race, so we need to work out why to avoid something like this happening again.

“It was very difficult to keep up with other cars and stay in their DRS. We just lacked performance overall and I didn’t expect it to be that bad. It is what it is, we have to stay positive and work on improving for the next race.”