Pierre Gasly feels his Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda outfit has a ‘great mentality’ and a ‘great attitude’ and these attributes have helped him rebuild his career across the past years since he was dropped by Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
Gasly was given only twelve races as Max Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate before being replaced by Alexander Albon, but since then, the Frenchman has secured his maiden podium finish in the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix and his maiden victory in this year’s Italian Grand Prix.
The atmosphere within AlphaTauri has given him the confidence to perform at the highest level once more after he lost self-confidence at Red Bull, with the harmony and determination within his current team has allowed them to improve their on-track results.
“The team has a great mentality, a great attitude,” said Gasly to German publication, Auto Motor und Sport. “There is a lot of positive energy. We all work well together. That’s the most important thing in a team sport like Formula 1.
“I do my job on Sunday but the development work, the set-up of the car, all of this work is done before the race weekend. The harmony is right. Everyone gives 110% of their skills for the results on the track.”
Gasly feels that he will be able to have a bigger influence on the design of the 2021 car after having very limited input into the 2020 machine after only re-joining the team – then known as Scuderia Toro Rosso – midway through the 2019 campaign.
“For the first time, I will be on the team for two seasons in a row,” said Gasly. “Everything that happened this year – the co-operation and the feedback to the engineers – flows into next year’s development. I want to work even more closely with them to influence developments.
“When I speak of more responsibility, I mean the fact that we will work together longer. After 2018 I was with Red Bull. In 2019 I came back quite late in the year. I didn’t have that much influence on this year’s car.”
