Full transcript of Pierre Gasly’s angry radio reaction to Q1 elimination

Sam Cooper
Pierre Gasly putting on his helmet while standing in the team's garage. Baku June 2022

AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly putting on his helmet while standing in the team's garage. Baku June 2022

Pierre Gasly was not a happy man as a brake problem knocked him out of Q1, here is everything he said in the session’s final moments.

Having been announced as an Alpine driver for the 2023 season, Gasly’s day took a turn for the worse when he was among the five drivers to be eliminated from the first session of qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Earlier in the session both he and team-mate Yuki Tsunoda had returned to the pits early after a brake problem was causing them issues on the track.

While it seems AlphaTauri were able tor correct the problem for Tsunoda, who made it through to Q2, that was not the case with Gasly and he fumed over the team radio after being knocked out.

Here’s the full transcript of what he said to his race engineer Pierre Hamelin:

PH: Okay Pierre, let’s do a round-up. Try to focus on the hard braking on the in lap-please, try to prepare them for Q2 if we can get there.

PG: It’s completely off, I have nothing.

PH: Okay, sorry. Delta negative and work on your brakes.

PG: I’ve asked you to wait. Why? Why do you do it with the other car and not with me?

PH: [Inaudible]

PG: Yeah but the brakes! No point doing a lap with no brakes, you can’t brake!

PH: We need to be negative please, negative on hard braking for now. [Gasly is knocked out] Okay stop in front of the garage.

Speaking to F1.com afterwards, Gasly explained that it was a problem with the front left disc that was causing the issue.

“We glazed the front left disc, the brakes, so basically the front left was completely off,” the soon-to-be Alpine driver said. “And no brake at all in the last lap.

“Every time I was breaking, I was front locking. So our last attempt went for waste and it’s a shame because before that we were I think in ninth and it’s a shame we didn’t get a chance to do a proper attempt at the end.”

Gasly was confident the car had the pace to reach Q2 but admitted any further than that may have been too high an ask.

“I think we had potential for Q2, to make Q3 would have been quite hard, but definitely more potential than what we showed today.

“So for tomorrow, it’s wet. We know it always brings more opportunities in this condition so a lot of work ahead of us tomorrow.”

Gasly will start P17 for the Japanese Grand Prix.

Read more: Pierre Gasly looking to repair relationship with Esteban Ocon at Alpine