Last season, the team from Faenza had a podium with its own French driver and a seventh place with Yuki Tsunoda
Formula 1 returns this weekend to Azerbaijan, a place where Pierre Gasly and AlphaTauri have fond memories. It was on the Baku track that, in 2021, the team achieved a podium finish with the French driver and a good seventh place, with Yuki Tsunoda.
Precisely because of this, Gasly said he is optimistic to repeat the good performance in Sunday's F1 race. In the Frenchman's view, the team needs to 'make the case' for performance - and will rely on a circuit on which the AlphaTauri's car can be well suited to help in the mission.
"Last year we did very well here, I finished on the podium in third place after qualifying fourth. It was a great race for the team, Yuki (Tsunoda) also scored, in seventh. So we came to Baku to defend these results," Gasly said.
"I have a good feeling about this race, as the Baku track is made of nothing less than slow corners and we know that so far in the year we have more difficulties with the high-speed corners. So I think the layout could potentially suit us. We shouldn't forget that there is a long straight, so we'll have to see how we handle that. But in general I'm optimistic," added the Frenchman.
With only six points so far in F1 2022, and 14th place in the Drivers' World Championship, Gasly analyzed the Azeri track and justified his optimism for the GP. The race in Baku starts on Friday, with the first two free practices - and GRANDE PRÊMIO follows everything LIVE and in REAL TIME.
"Getting a vacuum at the end of the long straight would be useful for qualifying, but otherwise it's another street circuit - very twisty and tight, with similar characteristics to Monaco. This means that mechanical grip is more important than at other circuits. We were fast in Monaco, let's see if we will be here as well," pointed out the AlphaTauri driver.
"As a team, we know we have work to do to perform at the highest level in the upcoming races. We know we have performance, so we'll keep accelerating even if we haven't been successful so far. But there are signs that we still have a lot of chances to do something good, maybe starting this weekend in Baku," he finished.