Pierre Gasly doubts AlphaTauri have the pace to lead the midfield based on their performance in pre-season testing.
“Generally I think we had a positive test,” said Gasly. “We managed to do a lot of laps, reliability is good.“I feel we obviously would like to be faster than than we are. Racing Point is really fast, McLaren as well, and Renault.”
“The [others] are all super fast,” he added. “I would say the others are a bit stronger in some ways.”
The AT01 bears a clear resemblance to its predecessor, along with sister team Red Bull’s RB16, as the two share the same power units and other components. Gasly said the team’s previous car didn’t have any obvious deficiencies which needed to be addressed.
“It’s not like we have big weaknesses, I think it’s general comments. You always want more downforce so high speeds, low speed is a bit mechanical.
“I don’t think the old car had something wrong in it. But we just need to try to bring a bit more downforce to it, which is going to be the story the whole year and for everybody.”
The team was able to make some progress in understanding its car following the pre-season tests, Gasly added.
“There are a couple of areas we know we improved already since Barcelona, just understanding the car better. Because we did six days, which is less than before, and still discovering a new car it takes a bit of time to extract the best of it.
“But I think for sure we are not at the top of the midfield, we know it. Others have done some good job. We have done a good job but we know it’s not going to be an easy fight for us to make it to the top 10.”
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2020 F1 season
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Phylyp (@phylyp)
27th March 2020, 12:06
In February, this would be good news.
In March? Hoo boy.
Only Facts!
27th March 2020, 12:30
Basically, is RBR’s 2019 chassis against Mercedes 2019 chassis. If Gasly couldn’t do it last year, will he do it in 2020?
And then you have McLaren aiming to slice some more tenths off the top field. Plus Renault and their last chance (now 2021 appears as their last chance…) to convince the board that they should stay.
Double headers, triple headers, almost a race every weekend, crowded midfield, VER x HAM at the top, LEC x VET as a sideshow.
What was Gasly saying about AT…? ¶:-)
Ronny
27th March 2020, 13:07
Yeah under promise and over deliver 😉
DonSmee (@david-beau)
27th March 2020, 17:15
They will be OK. Toro rosso always played a factor up until the last race. Only need to avoid reliability and mistakes to be strong in the midfield fight.
Jimmi Cynic (@jimmi-cynic)
27th March 2020, 21:06
They will be 100% reliable and 100% competitive in every way you can imagine. In the new F1 imaginary racing series, every team leads the mid-field.