Scuderia AplhaTauri‘s head of Vehicle Performance, Guillaume Dezoteux, was less than happy after the third free practice session and qualifying proved to be extremely challenging for both drivers after the team struggled to execute a well-balanced set-up for a dry track.
Pierre Gasly struggled the most out of the two drivers after the team made a last-minute decision to replace the front left brake disc, which failed to make much difference as Gasly qualified in seventeenth, significantly further down the grid than the team had hoped for.
“The third free practice session was difficult. It was our first opportunity to set up the cars for a dry track and we struggled to find the correct balance, especially on Pierre’s side of the garage. It pushed us to take more risks than we would usually do, and we made several significant setup changes on both cars ahead of Qualifying.“
Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda both encountered breaking issues, which Dezoteux has admitted needs investigating as the team is yet to understand the sudden loss of confidence with the cars breaking. After the unfortunate crash during last week’s Singapore Grand Prix, the Japanese driver managed to push his AT03 further than his team-mate and put in a good lap, which secured his appearance in Q2.
“Unfortunately, we were hampered by brakes material issues that we need to understand and analyse in detail. Both drivers struggled a lot in Q1 with front wheel locking, and while Yuki did manage to perform a good lap, Pierre couldn’t and got knocked out. In Q2, Yuki managed to improve, and he extracted more from the car, but still the confidence in braking wasn’t there.“
Currently tied in ninth place with Haas F1 Team for this year’s Constructors Championship, AlphaTauri hope to eliminate any tricky breaking issues and bounce back in better shape for Sunday’s race, and hopefully pick up some points. Dezoteux hinted at a long night ahead for the team as they now start to look ahead to the race and review different scenarios.
“Looking ahead to the race there are still opportunities, especially if the rain hits the track in the middle of the race, as some forecasts suggest. We will review the different scenarios tonight and prepare both cars in the best possible way.”
