Pierre Gasly was in the driving seat of the Scuderia AlphaTauri‘s AT01 for the second day of pre-season testing for the FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Circuit De Catalunya-Barcelona. He has explained that he was happy in the new car as he finished fifth in the standings.
Gasly said that it was an exciting time for himself as it was the first time he had stepped into the AT01, as teammate Daniil Kvyat had driven the car during the shakedown and day one of test.
The Frenchmen heads into his third full season of Formula 1 completed over two race distances at 147 laps of the, 2020 Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, circuit.
“I was happy with today, I missed being behind the wheel a lot! The target was to do as many laps as we could, because with pre-season testing two days shorter this year, we have to try to be more efficient and cover more things.
“Overall, we can be pleased as we managed to complete the programme we set for the day and I felt comfortable in the car straight away.“
He explained that there is a lot left to do in testing, but they seemingly have made good progress so far as a team.
“We tested a few more things compared to last year, also on my side in terms of driving, to understand how to get on top of everything, and there were some really positive results.
“There are many areas we are still exploring, we still need to figure certain areas out as it’s a new car with new parts. I think we found some good directions for the next few days, so now we have quite a lot to study.”
Reliability Looking ‘Very Good’ for AlphaTauri- Egginton
Technical Director, Jody Egginton commented on the second day of testing saying how the reliability of the car was tested as they racked up the laps to make sure they could see how the engine was performing.
“The first proper day of running for Pierre went quite well overall. We covered a good number of test items together with some aero data collection with the rakes fitted and the normal systems and PU setting adjustments. The reliability of the car was again very good with a lot of kilometres completed, allowing us to tick all the boxes on the programme.“
Egginton explained that during the second day of testing it was easier for them to understand the AT01, as they have been sending out more data to their facilities in Faenza and Bicester.
“We have taken a further step in our understanding of the car and will be putting this data to good use in the coming days, both here in Barcelona and also back in Faenza and Bicester where the aero, design, and vehicle performance groups are flat out preparing numerous developments for evaluation.“
