AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly believes the 2020 Formula 1 season was his “best ever” in the wake of his turbulent 2019 campaign, and was buoyed by the team’s gains after a concerning pre-season period.
Gasly finished 10th in the Drivers’ Championship in 2020, with the highlight of his season coming at the Italian Grand Prix, where he took an unexpected maiden victory.
The Frenchman scored nine more top 10 finishes throughout the year to take 75 championship points by the conclusion of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Gasly is signed up to race once again at AlphaTauri in 2021 and hopes to make “another step forward” after his positive 2020 campaign.
“I think it will be fair to say that it’s been my best season,” Gasly said.
“I think I’m performing better than all the other years in Formula 1 with a bit more experience, having struggled a bit more last year, and knowing a bit more what I need and what I require from the people around me to really perform at my best.
“I really wanted to work on my consistency this year, trying to be consistently in the points and be on top of the issues you can face in the races.
“I really wanted to, in these maybe more challenging races where things are not really going your way, try to make the best out of it and try to grab the few points we could.
“I think that’s what we did. And next year I really want to take another step forward as well and deliver even stronger performances.”
Gasly hailed the progress of both AlphaTauri and Honda during the year, admitting he was expecting a much more challenging season due to early concerns over the AT01’s pace.
“At start of the year I thought the season will be a lot more difficult than it has been,” Gasly said.
“In Barcelona when we tried the car there were a couple of things we were not really happy with. On the aero side I think we had some room for improvements and straightaway the team did a pretty big step in the first few races.
“Obviously we had this first lockdown and the season was delayed which probably helped us as we came to Austria, so we had already some upgrades starting the season.
“But the trend was just to pick up some pace all the way through the season. Engine wise, I think we have a very competitive power unit now.
“Honda has been doing a fantastic job all year long, reliability has been great. And I think, looking at the evolution compared to last year, it was just going the right way. So really looking forward to our last year together in 2021.”
