Pierre Gasly is hopeful that AlphaTauri can take a step forward at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after mixed fortunes in the opening races of the campaign. The Frenchman retired from the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix due to a mechanical issue, but claimed a P8 and P9 in Saudi Arabia and Australia respectively. Gasly's drive to a points result in Melbourne was not necessarily straightforward, as the timing of the Safety Car caused him to lose positions, but he was ultimately pleased to battle back through to ninth.
Gasly: AlphaTauri still have work to do
With the midfield battle remaining close, Gasly would like to see AlphaTauri get even closer to their competitors at Imola. "We know we still have work to do," the one-time race winner said in the team's race preview. "We must bring more performance to the package and that's the plan for Imola this week. Then, looking at the other teams, we saw that McLaren and Alpine were very quick so that, with the three top teams out in front, we found ourselves 11th in qualifying [in Australia]. "It's very close in the midfield, but we don't need to find much performance to be able to improve. "It would be nice if we can make a step forward in Imola."
Can Imola offer the home advantage for AlphaTauri?
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is something of a home race for the Italy-based AlphaTauri, and Gasly looks forward to going racing there. "It's a track I really like, to start with because it's very close to the factory, so everyone wants to do really well as we have more support from the crowd than usual, and it has a very special atmosphere," Gasly explained. "Apart from that, I also find the track technically very interesting with a lot of quite unique corners, some very fast ones, some atypical ones. "I'm always happy to drive there, I've had some good qualifying performances, particularly in 2020, when I was fourth on the grid, and it would be nice if we could get our best result of the season so far this Sunday." This weekend will look a little different to last year's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, due to the addition of the Sprint race on Saturday. "Overtaking is quite tricky, as the track is narrow, so it will be important to focus on qualifying on Friday, before dealing with the added challenge of the Sprint race on Saturday, which this year is another opportunity to score points," Gasly commented.
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