Gasly searching for 'magic trick' solutions after Alpine woes

Pierre Gasly has been trying to identify a "magic trick" in the set-up of his Alpine Formula 1 car in a bid to unlock performance.

Fears that Alpine was struggling with the A524 machine after testing were realised in qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix as Esteban Ocon and Gasly qualified 19th and 20th - as the Alpines will share the back-row of the grid.

The car is overweight and already has a long-standing engine deficiency that Renault is unable to rectify owing to the freeze on performance-related power unit upgrades.

Gasly is confident that upgrades are on the way from Enstone to fix the car, and has been left searching for solutions to try and bring the car into a more competitive set-up window.

"At the moment, I just don't really get the [feeling] from the front that I need inside the car and get the rotation that I want," Gasly explained to media including RacingNews365.

"Honestly, when you are slow, generally it never feels great, so I've been experimenting in every single session trying to find if there is a magic trick to unlock some potential for now.

"I haven't found it, but I know the upgrades will bring the balance a bit more together and in the direction that I want, so there will be progress.

"It is not as bad [as people say]. Looking at the gaps, there is work to do, but everything matters and two kilos [of weight] equals six-hundredths so there is some performance to come from the chassis.

"It is very clear where we've got to make improvements, fortunately, it doesn't come as a surprise that we are lacking performance.

"For the time being, we've got to make the best out of what we have got, and it is a shame in Q1 that we didn't manage the traffic.

"Everyone was queuing up and we were the last car on track, and I ended up pushing flat out on my out-lap to make it past the line.

"It felt like we could potentially get a shot at Q2, but in the bigger picture, we are still far away from where we want to be - and we will have to be patient until the upgrades come."