We made too many mistakes and didn’t deserve points – Gasly

2021 Russian Grand Prix

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A disappointed Pierre Gasly said AlphaTauri deserved their second point-less result in a row at the Russian Grand Prix.

Gasly pounded his Halo and steering wheel in frustration after he failed to make the cut for Q3 on Saturday. He had lost time behind George Russell earlier in the session and missed out on a place in the final 10 after the team decided against pitting him for a fresh set of tyres.

In the race, AlphaTauri initially left Gasly on slick tyres when rain fell in the final laps. Other drivers he was racing with pitted for intermediates benefited and went on to score points. Gasly was hit by Lance Stroll and finished 13th.

“We did all the first stint in front of Bottas, second stint we come right behind Bottas and then the rain comes, they boxed him and then we stayed out and basically they finished P5 and then we finished out of the points,” Gasly summed up. “We were not on track with the right tyres, but apparently we didn’t expect more rain and there was more rain, so it was unfortunate and we’ll revise how to improve our weather forecast

Reflecting on his weekend on Sunday evening Gasly said “it’s questionable how we do things, because I know we have a very small group of people in the team and unfortunately this weekend we got it wrong yesterday and again today.

“We left big points on the table. There was Bottas and Kimi [Raikkonen] right in front of us that boxed and everybody boxed and we stayed two or three more laps out and they finished fifth and eighth and we finished 13th. So it’s clearly something that we didn’t maximise.

“It’s a shame because honestly, the car was once more competitive and we can’t allow ourselves to make such mistakes if we want to fight for fifth in the championship.”

Prior to the previous round at Monza, AlphaTauri was the only team to have scored points in every race this year. Gasly said the team were clearly quick enough to get a result at both tracks.

“In Monza we qualified sixth. Again in practice we were third and sixth on Friday, we had very strong pace on inters. When I see the last lap, we’re a full second faster than everybody on inters so the pace was again there.

“But we made too many mistakes and this weekend we didn’t deserve to score points. I think we just do too many mistakes.

“For all of us we need to just work more and understand how to capitalise on such opportunities. It’s a tough one to take because there was clearly better to do, but hopefully it can be good for the rest of the year.”

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2021 Russian Grand Prix

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6 comments on “We made too many mistakes and didn’t deserve points – Gasly”

  1. Got to tone it down Gas, that is way too much honesty! Could get you into trouble. Just sayin’

  2. apparently we didn’t expect more rain and there was more rain…we’ll revise how to improve our weather forecast

    One can argue every decision you made as a driver was wrong, that a better decision could have been made. One can also argue every decision you made as a weather forecaster was wrong too, and that a better decision could have been made. Weather forecasting isn’t exactly an accurate science. I don’t recall Pierre making a big fuss about his late braking collision with Daniel at Monza, but maybe I missed it.
    Looking at the lap position chart, it seems to me mostly the race result (barring Max and Valtteri) wasn’t wildly different from the start of the race. Yes, there were winners and losers because of the rain, but nothing extraordinary. One of the bigger loosers was Charles, he was running about 9th just before the rain started, but he did start 19th, so a 15th place finish wasn’t a lot different. I hadn’t thought about this before, but really this race result shows the importance of Qualifying: a top 10 starting place on the grid mostly resulted in a top 10 race finish. Max, Valtteri, and Kimi were the only drivers who finished in the Top 10 who started the Race outside the Top 10, but even Kimi’s result wasn’t wildly different from where he started. Pierre started at 11th and finished at 13th. When you take into consideration Max and Valtteri’s initial and final placing, Pierre finished about where he started.
    Also, there are two drivers at AlphaTauri, not one.

  3. notes to take away from the joke incompetent AlphaTauri team that needs mentioning.

    No penalty for $troll crashing into Gasley spinning him out? I guess daddies money silenced the stewards..

    What happened to Tsunoda that put him last at the end of lap one?

    Why did the team keep both Tsunoda ang Gasley out? GAS was in line for big points.

    Redbull ordering GAS to step aside over the radio with team orders proving that the teams only purpose is to Help Max..

    Does the team care about Tsunoda at all? Seems like they only use him for a means to an end to get Honda free engines treating him like a 2nd class citizen. he gets the worst mechanics, undrivable car yet the clueless agenda driven david croft blames him for the mistakes (conveniently is silent when GAS wipes out..)

    1. Stroll did get a 10″ Time Penalty and 2 Penalty Points for his collision with Gasly.

  4. … And people still wonder why he doesn’t drive for Redbull

    1. Is there any correlation?

      Gasly is driving better than ever. I like his assertive attitude now than the meek and afraid one he showed at Red Bull.

      The guys at Alpha Tauri maybe a bit hurt hearing that, but they need to accept and acknowledge their mistake in Sochi. Gasly wants more, and his team should be too. They could have easily racked up a lot of points last weekend. I guess Franz Tost would agree with his remarks on most points.

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