Formula 1 News: Pierre Gasly at his usual-best in Qatar

Formula 1 news: ‘I would like to have what Pierre’s having for breakfast, lunch, and dinner’, I Tweeted when I saw Gasly running in P2 in FP1. One better, the Frenchman continued his brilliant form in FP2, too! Take. A. Bow!

Pierre has been sensational ever since he got demoted to the junior Red Bull team from the 2019 Belgian GP onwards. Sadly enough, the timing couldn’t be right for him to show what he’s capable of at the main team. Then again, it’s not like Red Bull wanted him to show his speed either.

Over the years, Gasly has been turning into such a fine driver, and a pretty underrated one at that, too. This year alone, he most certainly has outperformed his AlphaTauri to score many brilliant and well-deserved points. That said, the AlphaTauri car itself is such a big step forward this season.

When I tuned into FP1 of the inaugural Qatar GP, I was genuinely quite shocked to see him in P2, faster than the Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari, the likes. What’s his secret, then? Maybe I can tell you that, but first…

Formula 1 news: “Best Friday of the season”

There is always an unknown when you step out on a brand-new track for the first time. I never expected AT to perform this better at the Losail Circuit. But to everybody’s surprise, it is!

“It’s been great. P2 in both sessions, it’s been a very good Friday, the best of the season so far, so it felt great. Actually, inside the car, it’s not that easy in these conditions, so I can’t tell if it feels like we’re flying, but the lap time is really good so that’s a positive. But still, I think in terms of balance, we can do even better for tomorrow, so we’ll try and work on that.”

Gasly was around four-tenths shy of Verstappen in FP1 and some two-tenths away from Bottas in FP2. All things considered, one should not expect him to challenge for Pole tomorrow, because we don’t know what fuel loads and programs were the others running. However, we can definitely expect him to be near the Ferraris, or even out-qualify them.

“Let’s be objective,” says Gasly. “We know that Red Bull and Mercedes always pick up the pace massively on Saturday and Sunday. They are clearly not the target. We’ll obviously do the best we can, and if we can be in front of them, that will be obviously very pleasant.”

Worth pointing out is that Alpha’s main target is Alpine, a team with which it is currently locked on points. “But the main target for us is Alpine. We’ll try and fight with the McLarens and the Ferraris, but so far we look very competitive, and I’m excited to see what we can do tomorrow.”

Formula 1 news: Yuki to finally help Pierre?

Tsunoda is a quick driver. Or so have I heard. He is fast and hence the reason why he was brought into the A-league. But, the only issue is that perhaps he is over-driving the car if you may. Crashes in Quali, poor race pace, all add up to non-scoring races, something that might just hurt AT.

In Qatar, however, scenes are looking much better and brighter for the Japanese rookie. Yuki was P5 in FP1 and P7 in FP2 – now if only he could keep this momentum going into Quali… It would be such an amazing feat achieved.

“Tomorrow, it’s going to be key,” says Tsunoda. “I think overtaking is going to be a bit difficult, so qualifying’s going to be important. We just need to nail it in the qualifying to start with as high a position as much as possible to score points. But I think we have good confidence for qualifying and we just have to analyze the data from today.”

Formula 1 news: Future for Gasly?

I have always liked Pierre as an F1 driver, as a human. He is quick, he is dependable, he is consistent. The reason why it could never work out with Red Bull was that the team always wanted to support Verstappen. It did the same with Albon, too.

Pierre was never welcomed in that team, much to his despair. He has always wanted to race for a top team, become a proven race winner, a world champion, but at the moment, he cannot be.

Sure, Gasly has won a race with AlphaTauri, but last year’s Italian GP had a lot of crashes, twists, and turns. At the present moment, AT neither has the resources, nor the people required to give Gasly a hope of winning the championship, so the Frenchman will have to look for options elsewhere.

Currently, he is still tied up with Alpha, but when it comes to the next big move (if at all he gets to have one), there are very limited options up for grabs. Red Bull could sign him again, but that’s something I don’t think will happen. Ferrari is already closed, McLaren could be a possibility. Alpine too, looks to be out of the picture. Although the more I think about it, I feel Pierre could go to Aston Martin, once fan-favourite Sebastian Vettel hangs his gloves for good.

No matter what the situation is, I have been rooting for Gasly all year long, and I will continue to do so, because, without a shed of a doubt, he is not talked about enough. He is the most underrated driver on the grid currently.