Pierre Gasly bemoans ‘far too many races’ without right ‘end result’ in 2023

Henry Valantine
Pierre Gasly in the Alpine garage. Bahrain, March 2023.

Pierre Gasly believes Alpine are now in the chasing pack to be best of the rest in Formula 1, but bemoaned “far too many races” where things have not yet gone his way this season.

His latest troubles came in Barcelona last weekend, when he qualified fourth fastest but was hit with two separate grid penalties for impeding during qualifying, leaving him out of the hunt for a podium.

This was already tacked on to Gasly feeling as though he could, and perhaps should, have been in the hunt for the top three in Monaco the previous weekend, with team-mate Esteban Ocon bringing home a P3 finish from Monte Carlo.

What recent races have proven to Gasly at his new team is that the A523 does have pace underneath it, and he is “confident and satisfied” that is the case, he just feels that the next step is for himself and the team to “execute better weekend” more regularly.

“The good news on this is the fact the Alpine car has the speed and the potential,” Gasly wrote in a column forFormula1.com.

“Other than the runaway leaders Red Bull, it’s a fight between Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin and ourselves.

PlanetF1.com recommends

Ranked: F1 2023 driver line-ups from weakest to strongest

‘Max Verstappen could ‘destroy’ Sergio Perez, but he’s tough enough…’

“As we’ve seen, there’s a big difference between qualifying and race results across these teams and each race there is some variety.

“Right now, we are at the back of this pack, but with the ability to throw our name into the ring – as we showed in Monaco and at times in Spain.

“Finding consistency will be key to reaching our goals and really competing with these teams.

“There have been far too many races where I have the speed but without the end result to show for it; Australia, Monaco and Spain spring to mind, and we are working with the team to fix some minor details, execute better weekends and do a more complete job.

“这就是为什么我感觉自信和satisfied right now. I know the ingredients are there, we just have to mix them the right way!”

Gasly has scored 15 points so far in 2023 compared to 25 for team-mate Ocon, whose podium in Monaco earned him 15 points in one outing.