AlphaTauri ‘Paying the Price’ for Inconsistent Form in 2022 – Pierre Gasly

Pierre Gasly believes his Scuderia AlphaTauri team have paid the price for inconsistency during the opening half of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, which has seen the team slip to eighth place in the Constructors’ standings.

After a super 2021 season for the Faenza-based team that saw them finish sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, hopes were high they could kick on this season and maybe challenge for the top five.

But it has not materialised the way they had hoped, and the team have failed to score points in any of the past five Grand Prix, with Gasly’s fifth place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix the last time that either he or team-mate Yuki Tsunoda broke into the top ten.

The midfield battle in 2022 appears to be tighter than ever, and unlike in recent years, there are no teams that are at the back of the pack, such as Williams Racing or the Haas F1 Team, both of whom have improved their race pace this season.

And Gasly says it is this and the lack of consistency shown by AlphaTauri that has seen them slip so far back in the championship, the team having scored fifty-seven points less in the opening thirteen races of this season compared to at the same point last year.

“I believe that in this kind of moment, as a leader, you’ve got to unite and keep everybody united, working towards the same goal,” said Gasly to Motosport.com.  “This is not easy, because we’re all humans and people want work versus reward.

“At the moment, we are all working hard, but we are not getting the reward for that effort that we are producing.  I do believe there are still chances and signs that we can get good results. But objectively, it’s clearly harder than last year, especially I would say in a more competitive midfield.

“Now there are no teams at the back like Williams or Haas. It’s all a midfield from the fourth team to the last one.  It just means that if you go a bit on the back foot, last year where you would still be close to the top 10, now you are paying the price a bit more.”

Gasly says the AT03 has been difficult to set-up throughout the 2022 season so far, with certain tracks, such as the Baku City Circuit highlighting the kind of potential the car has, whilst others have showcased the weaknesses.

The inconsistent form means they go into the final nine races of the season ahead only of the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team and Williams in the Constructors’ Championship, although they are only seven points behind Haas in seventh.

“The situation feels a little bit like 2018 when I joined the team,” added Gasly. “We had this sort of very specific race where things [worked]. I have in mind like Bahrain, Bahrain with that P4, it was kind of the same issue as Baku with the P5.

“We have some very small glimpses of very amazing performance, but on very particular tracks and in specific conditions. For the rest, I would say quite a lot of bad luck or like incidents that affected our end result. This is always frustrating.

“When you’re working towards one goal in mind, and that’s what you want more than anything else, and you see that things are not coming altogether, it’s not always easy to deal with it.”