Pierre Gasly: ​​“We still have a little under our belt”

For its last day of driving before Melbourne, Pierre Gasly offered himself the trifle of 138 laps at the wheel of theAlpha Tauri AT01, while achieving the second time two tenths behind Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari).

All in rather delicate track conditions, between the residual humidity in the morning on the circuit, and a still-present wind.

“We had to do most of the work in the afternoon, but we were able to do a race simulation and push the car a little more and see what balance the AT01 can have when we push a little more, comments the Norman. It's rather good. »

Especially since according to the Frenchman, the AT01 has not shown its full potential. “With the wind, the car is not at its best compared to last week. I think we still have a little bit under our belt, and that's pretty positive.

We didn't give everything. We do our testing and we know what the engine can do. We are not looking for pole position, and we are following our plan. We found some interesting leads. Melbourne will be very different to Barcelona, ​​I don't want to get too excited now. »

An expected extra performance which could notably come from the engine Honda, Pierre Gasly showing himself delighted by the level displayed by the Japanese V6 turbo / hybrid. “They are working hard as usual, recalls the AlphaTauri driver.

Last year, they made big progress during the season. In 2020, it's even better. Regarding reliability, we had no problems during the two weeks, it’s impressive. »

From there to seeing the Faenza team dominate the middle of the peloton? The Frenchman remains cautious. “I think Racing Point F1 is very fast. I don't want to dwell too much on this, there is a lot to analyze.

Renault looks okay, but sometimes the cars seem fast, sometimes they are slower. I don't waste too much time looking at this. We focus on our car »