Pierre Gasly: “I think we can write off this weekend, we just didn’t have the pace”

Pierre Gasly says Scuderia AlphaTauri can write off the Austrian Grand Prix weekend after ending the race on Sunday down in fifteenth, and with a penalty for colliding with Sebastian Vettel.

The Frenchman had a disappointing weekend at the Red Bull Ring, colliding with Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Lewis Hamilton at turn one on the opening lap of the Sprint race on Saturday, and it was a similar story on Sunday as he collided with Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team’s Vettel at turn four.

Even without the collisions, the pace of the AT03 was not strong enough to compete for points, and Gasly is hoping a planned upgrade to the car will help them regain their position amid the midfield after seemingly falling off the back in recent events.

“I think we can write off this weekend, we just didn’t have the pace,” said Gasly.  “I haven’t seen the footage yet, but I obviously received a penalty in the race, so I guess I’m the one to blame for the incident with Sebastian. I tried to fight as hard as I could, it’s always tricky in that corner and unfortunately he spun.

“We need a big reset, we’ve got a week and a half to try and understand why we were slow and then learn what we can do to improve in the upcoming races.

“Hopefully the new package allows us to move forward and be competitive in the midfield again.”

“This has been the hardest race weekend we’ve had so far this year” – Yuki Tsunoda

Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda also suffered with a distinct lack of pace and finished the race in seventeenth, although he was promoted to sixteenth thanks to a five-second time penalty for Vettel for track limit offences.

The Japanese racer says it will be important for the team to understand why they were not on the pace all weekend long at the Red Bull Ring, and he says the weekend in Austria was his hardest of the year so far.

“It’s been really tough, that was a long race,” said Tsunoda.  “I had no pace at all this weekend and have really struggled since FP2, with the car sliding all over the place.

“We need to go away and look at what the issue may be, as we’ve not seen anything in the data that explains why this weekend has been so difficult.

“I gave it my everything today and there wasn’t much more I think I could’ve done in terms of my personal performance in this situation but overall, this has been the hardest race weekend we’ve had so far this year.”

Yuki Tsunoda struggled for pace throughout the Austrian Grand Prix weekend – Credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images