Gasly: ​​“A good thing to be able to accumulate tricks”

Pierre Gasly was able to conclude the first week of testing in Barcelona (Spain) on a good note. The Frenchman was able to accumulate a total of 238 laps at the end of the 4 days of testing on the Catalunya circuit, a total of 1107km.

“It was a productive day with quite a few long stints for a total of 146 laps, confirms the pilot Red Bull. The feedback from the car is very good and our program is going well. It’s a good thing to be able to accumulate laps to learn the car. We haven't yet looked for performance. We worked more on the accumulation of data. I only have a few problems with the seat, nothing too bad. »

The long stints above all allowed us to test the Honda Power Unit, which has often been singled out in recent seasons for its lack of reliability.

“Honda seems to have done a good job as we haven’t had any major issues, but let’s wait until next week to get a better picture.”, underlines the 2016 GP2 Series champion.

« Ferrari seems fast, but we will have to wait until Melbourne to see the real hierarchy. It will obviously be necessary to count on Mercedes. Our package seems competitive at the moment, although there is still room for improvement.”, summarizes the French pilot.

“We spent most of the day on the C3 tires doing long stints, but the goal wasn't just to rack up the miles, nuance Guillaume Rocquelin, the racing engineering director. There were lots of things done to facilitate the development of the car. We are receiving valuable help from the factory, as proven by the new rear wing installed (the day before yesterday). »

Discover the analysis of the first week of winter testing in Barcelona in AUTO issue 2205hebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from this Wednesday on newsstands.