Pierre Gasly believes the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season has been his unluckiest of his career to date, with the Frenchman also admitting the BWT Alpine F1 Team have not been as competitive as they would have liked.
Gasly joined Alpine at the start of 2023 after leaving Scuderia AlphaTauri, and in the opening twelve races, he has scored only twenty-two points to sit twelfth in the Drivers’ Championship. His best Sunday result was seventh in Monaco, although he has taken a third place in the wet/dry Sprint race in Belgium.
The Frenchman knows there have been times during the season where luck has seemingly deserted them, such as the Australian Grand Prix where he and team-mate Esteban Ocon collided accidentally at the chaotic final restart, while he was also heavily compromised on the opening lap of the main race in Belgium after being caught up behind the slow-moving Oscar Piastri heading towards Eau Rouge that saw him lose several positions.
The lack of luck, coupled with a car that has not been as strong as they hoped it would be means that Alpine are currently adrift in the Constructors’ Championship having lost ground to the McLaren F1 Team having already fallen behind the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team.
“I think it’s been quite tricky for many different reasons,” Gasly is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “I think, overall, we’ve been probably the most unlucky I’ve been in Formula 1 compared to all other seasons.
“There were a couple of missed opportunities, which had like a sort of snowball effect and a pretty big impact on the final results. So obviously, it doesn’t reflect, the full potential of the package.
“But, on the other side, we haven’t been as competitive as what we had targeted at the start of the year.
“Alpine finished quite strong in fourth position [in 2022], and we started this year behind Aston, so as the fifth best team. Then McLaren had a better development than we have had so far, so we dropped to sixth. And it’s obviously not the target for the season.
“It would be a lie to say that we matched the expectations. But we still have half a year to go and there’s still quite a lot of stuff in the pipeline in terms of developments.
“It’s not going to turn the full season around, but I’m definitely hopeful that we can show a better form in the second part of the year.”
