Arriving in Bahrain, one certainty seemed to be ingrained. McLaren would dominate the debates, leaving only a few crumbs to its direct competitors. After ultimately unpredictable qualifications before the last round, Pierre Gasly managed to make his way among the top teams, placing himself in particular ahead of Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, or Max Verstappen before the start of the race.
8th, Carlos Sainz managed to get ahead of his teammate Alexander albon for the first time this season (the Thai driver having been eliminated in Q1), but was also beaten by Pierre Gasly at the wheel of a high-performance A525. Speaking to Sky Sport, the former driver of the Team Ferrari has notably anticipated good performances from the A-line in the coming weeks.
For Carlos Sainz, "theAlpine will fly” on certain circuits in 2025
At the heart of a very tight peloton, where each track seems to redistribute the cards by hundredths of a second, Carlos Sainz affirms that the qualities of the car A525 have not finished being highlighted this season. "It depends a lot on the track. And when you have the whole field within eight tenths of a second, it's clear that you're going to go on tracks where theAlpine will fly, others where hopefully the Williams will be faster."
"What is clear to me is thatAlpine is impressive on bends, he added. I don't know if you have access to the GPS data, but they managed to go as fast as a McLaren in turns six and eleven, so all those high average speed corners." Unable to approach that pace despite a record-breaking qualifying performance with Williams, the Spaniard believes the potential ofAlpine is even more important.
"It's really impressive what they managed to do, that qualifying lap by Pierre. They were complaining about having three tenths (of loss Ed.) engine. So, with an engine Mercedes or Ferrari, the car would be at the forefront. It's interesting."
As in Bahrain, the fast turns follow one another in Jeddah, the venue for the next meeting of the Formula 1 next weekend. While waiting for this next stage, Pierre Gasly intends to capitalize on his strong performance on Saturday by collecting some points this Sunday, he who still hasn't opened his counter after a month of competition.
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