Pierre Gasly identified where AlphaTauri F1 struggled in the 2022 season.
AlphaTauri finished the 2021 season in 6th place in the constructors’ championship, but in 2022 the regulations changed drastically and they dropped to 9th place.
The new F1 regulations are designed to bring teams closer together on the track and AlphaTauri hoped to improve.
However, according to Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri has struggled to keep up with the development pace of other F1 teams, resulting in a mediocre result.
“After last season we had high expectations and the momentum was there,” Gasly told RacingNews365.com.
“The new regulations were supposed to bring the field closer and AlphaTauri’s hopes for the best season weren’t as high as they were at the start of the season.”
“I wasn’t feeling well at the start of the year, but then I wasn’t worried. It was a developmental battle, but it didn’t work out for us.”
Pierre Gasly explained that the team’s lack of development resulted in the use of heavier cars throughout the year which had a knock-on effect on performance over the entire race weekend.
“The car hasn’t felt bad, but we’ve been struggling with being extremely overweight all season.
“We made a lot of sacrifices in qualifying and that was the biggest problem that prevented us from doing as we expected.”
“If you ask me, we had a better car from the beginning of the season, but we couldn’t compete because of the extra 12-13kg weight.
“In qualifying I lost more than three tenths per lap. I don’t remember how many times I missed Q3 because I was missing a tenth.”
“Plus, all that weight carries over into the race. It’s like racing with a backpack. If you start a race with a car that’s too heavy, your tires will wear out faster and you’ll lose performance every time.”
Category: F1 / Pierre Gutri / Alpha Taurus
