Pierre Gasly is optimistic about the upgrades Alpine brought to the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix despite dropping back in the race after a positive qualifying result.
Gasly qualified in seventh place but started the race from sixth due to George Russell having to start from the pit lane.
The team brought much-needed upgrades to Austin after a run of three races without scoring points and its car ran well for the Frenchman on Saturday.
However, on Sunday the Alpine driver went backwards as he ended up finishing the race down in 12th place.
The Enstone-based team is in ninth place in the Constructors’ Championship and looks likely to remain there, a stark contrast to its sixth-place finish in the championship last season.
Despite this, Gasly appeared upbeat when looking back on the race weekend heading into the Mexico City GP.
“Yeah, I mean, best qualifying of the year,” Gasly told media including Motorsport Week. “So I would say definitely some good positives to take away from the weekend.
“You know, looking back at a couple of months ago, we started in Bahrain on the last row.
“Still, we kept focusing on developing the package we have and, you know, eventually got to P7 last week in quali, so [I’m] very pleased to see some good evolution with the car.”
Gasly ‘gutted’ not to convert ‘good quail into points’
The 28-year-old enjoyed his best run of the 2024 F1 season between the Monaco GP and the Austrian GP, where he scored points in four consecutive races.
Since then, Gasly has only achieved one points-scoring finish and he felt disappointed with the way he dropped down the order during the US GP.
“The other side on Sunday, it wasn’t a good race, not well executed,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we lost quite a bit of time with the pit stop, struggled a lot with the Hard tyre and lost the good start we had.
“So quite gutted not to convert this good quali into points, but at least there is definitely some hopes.
“You know encouraging signs that we’re going to be able to fight slightly further up the top for the remaining races.”
The former Alpha Tauri driver went on to explain how the car felt better in Austin with the new upgraded package.
“Well, to be fair, all around the track, like just in terms of overall potential, [it] can carry a bit more speed, a tiny bit better on braking,” he said.
“It just [needs] to have a bit more grip available, still I’d say the balance, got a few things to improve there and that we got to work on.
“But like all the cars, you know, down the pit lane, no one’s going to get that perfect balance, but in terms of overall potential, you know, I was pleased to see, Q1, Q2, Q3, we were able to put laps good enough always for the top 10 and that was definitely encouraging.”
