AlphaTauri’s Franz Tost: “We now need to keep this momentum”

It was a positive day for Scuderia AlphaTauri, as they gained four more points in the fight with Haas F1 Team for seventh in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship Constructors’ Standing.

Pierre Gasly scored only his second points in eight races, finishing in eighth position after being held up by eventual retiree Daniel Ricciardo for most of the race. Gasly started in fifth-place, but struggled to maintain that position with quicker cars coming from behind driven by the likes of Lewis Hamilton. The Frenchman pitted early to try and undercut the Australian but the McLaren F1 Team responded by pitting their driver, leaving Gasly with the challenge to overtake Ricciardo, a lack of pace made that difficult.

Yuki Tsunoda started from the back of the grid after a series of reprimands. The Japanese driver made up a few spots from the start and got as high as twelfth. His race was an underwhelming one as he struggled on the Hard tyres, which meant he was stuck behind Esteban Ocon for much of the stint before being overtaken by Valtteri Bottas and Mick Schumacher.

AlphaTauri Team Principal, Franz Tost, was pleased with the overall weekend, with the team moving to just one point behind Haas in the standings.

“The fans, and the celebrations for the 100th anniversary of this historic track, didn’t deserve the race to finish the way it did today, as it would’ve been fantastic to see a fight on the last few laps, but unfortunately, as Ricciardo stopped so late, in accordance with the regulations we had to finish the race behind the Safety Car.

“As for us, our race was reasonably good. Pierre started from fifth position and finished eighth, he struggled a little bit with understeer on the Hards, but generally speaking – and also considering the performance of the cars in front of us – this was the best possible finishing position we could achieve today. Yuki started from the back of the grid, therefore it was not so easy to overtake cars, nevertheless he managed to do this well.

“We called him in during the Safety Car for the Softs, as we thought he would have a good chance with the new tyres, if the race was restarted, but unfortunately this was not the case. He could only finish in P14, but in general, Yuki had a good race weekend.

“Overall, we scored four points here, which is positive as we have closed the gap to Haas in the Championship, so we now need to keep this momentum, from Singapore in a few weeks, until the end of the season.”

Jody Egginton: “We need to be getting both cars up there”

While AlphaTauri do just sit one point behind Haas, they will still be looking over their shoulders with Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team only eight points behind them. The Italian team have failed to gain any consistent momentum during the season, leaving them in an unfamiliar eighth position.

Technical Director, Jody Egginton, was happy with the points finish but would have liked to have both cars fighting in the top ten.

“It’s good to come away with points today, with Pierre driving a solid race. At the same time, it’s frustrating that with Yuki we could not turn the strong performance he has shown here into a representative grid position and a better fight for points, due to penalties.

“Regarding Pierre’s race, the fight with the McLarens was good, but with two against one and Ricciardo proving tricky to pass, the McLaren strategy created some breathing space for Norris, which we could not recover, meaning we came home in P8 with Pierre.

“In summary, it’s good to be scoring points again, but we need to be getting both cars up there in order to improve our Constructors’ position, so obviously this is one of the key areas to be focused on.”

Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images/RedBull Content Pool