AlphaTauri had a weekend to forget at the Austrian GP, always riding at the back of the grid, and Pierre Gasly said that lack of improvements have turned AT03 into the slowest car in Formula 1 at the moment
In the most complicated weekend of the 2022 season so far, AlphaTauri simply could not compete with the other rivals in the Austrian GP, held last Sunday (10). With Pierre Gasly in 15th position and Yuki Tsunoda right behind, the two cars of the team were only ahead of Sebastian Vettel - who spun when he touched the Frenchman and was also penalized for not respecting the track limits. After the race, a despondent Gasly called urgently for improvements to the AT03.
"I think we can forget all about this weekend, because we were very slow," Gasly admitted in an official Formula 1 interview, "We are probably the slowest car on the track at the moment, and it's a shame to see that we are fighting for the last positions. I think we need to reset and clearly need some upgrades on the car as soon as possible," he said.
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Despite getting one position ahead of his teammate, Gasly had a very complicated race last Sunday. Besides the accident with Vettel, the Frenchman had difficulties in respecting the track limits and took two separate 5s penalties each, in addition to other warnings throughout the race. When asked about the low performance of the AlphaTauri, the Frenchman believes that the lack of improvements in the car is starting to take its toll.
"We haven't had improvements on the car for a while now, and yes, we are starting to feel that," the French driver pointed out. "So, yes, it's not something pleasurable. But I really hope we can get those new parts as soon as possible," Gasly repeated.
Finally, Tsunoda's partner commented on the incident with Vettel, in which the Aston Martin German tried to overtake from the outside, but was touched by the Frenchman and spun, going into the gravel box. Pierre admitted that he has not reviewed the touch yet, but admitted his guilt and charged AlphaTauri's commitment to raise the level for the next stages.
"I haven't seen the footage yet, but obviously I got a penalty in the race, so I think it was my fault that I crashed with Sebastian [Vettel]," he admitted. "I tried to fight as hard as I could, that corner is tricky, and unfortunately he spun. We need a big 'reset', we have a week and a half to try to understand why we are so slow and what we can do to improve for the next few races," he finished.