“We have a rough idea where we might be” – Pierre Gasly

Scuderia AlphaTauri enjoyed a strong final day of the Official Pre-Season Test at the Bahrain International Circuit, where both Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda got behind the wheel of the AT03.

Gasly was in the car first on the final day of pre-season, before the season kicks off back at Bahrain next weekend. The Frenchman completed a strong 91 laps with the best of those being a 1:34.865, enough for twelfth fastest by the close of the day. The highlight of Gasly’s day came in a mini-battle with Lewis Hamilton, the pair overtook each other multiple times in quick succession.

Gasly enjoyed the fight with Hamilton and believes following another car is much easier this year, he does believe though that the team still have plenty to work on.

“It’s good to be back to the nice weather here in Bahrain. We’ve had a pretty smooth test from our side, we completed all the program that we had planned for the three days here. We had a lot of question marks coming here and we’ve already managed to get some answers to these. I think we still need to sit down for a few days and review all the data we’ve collected, to try and put the puzzle together, so we can get the best possible car for next weekend.

“Obviously, it’s a new car so there are lots of things to learn, I would say there are still areas that we need to improve for the season but that’s part of the game when you have such a big change in F1. We have a rough idea of where we might be in the midfield, but we still don’t know where we’ll be until next week. It was great having the battle out there with Lewis today, we overtook each other a few times. Following definitely felt like an improvement to the previous car so that’s a big positive for the upcoming season, racing should be quite fun this year.”

“Still lots of things to improve myself” – Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki Tsunoda got his turn on the final day during the afternoon, the Japanese driver completed considerably less laps than his team-mate, with his final day total coming in at 57 laps. Tsunoda’s best lap of 1:33.002 was good enough for sixth place, however lap time is somewhat irrelevant during testing, nevertheless it’s a time to give Tsunoda confidence ahead of his second season.

The Japanese youngster believes the team have worked well during pre-season and that the car does have plenty of potential.

“We’ve made good progress as a team this week, I’m happy with how this test has gone and we’ve gathered a lot of important data. However, I’m not happy with how my lap went today on the C5 tyre, I think there was lots more potential there but unfortunately, I just couldn’t put it together. There are still lots of things to improve myself, and the car, but I think overall it’s been a good few days of testing. I haven’t driven too much around other cars, but from what I’ve felt so far I think the dirty air is reduced a lot compared to last year, so it’s already easier to follow and I’ve enjoyed it.

“I’ve got a good level of confidence heading into the first race next week. It’s a bit different to last year, as I’ve got more experience, and have focussed more on developing the car with the team. We don’t know exactly what position we’re in at the moment, but we’ve got a couple of days to work before Bahrain. We’ve got a good team and we’ll keep focussed ahead of the first race.”

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