McLaren, Ferrari F1 fights offered “different kind of excitement”

Gasly scored more points through 2021 than in any of his previous three full F1 seasons, finishing ninth in the standings with 110 points.

While Gasly could not emulate his shock win at Monza from 2020, the Frenchman picked up a podium finish in Azerbaijan, and was outside of the top 10 in just three races where he reached the chequered flag.

AlphaTauri narrowly lost out to Alpine in the fight for fifth place in the constructors’ championship, finishing 13 points behind.

Gasly said that while it was “difficult” to see such a small gap separating the teams at the end of a long season, he took heart from how AlphaTauri had performed throughout the campaign.

“What we have achieved as a team, when we look at all the previous years of AlphaTauri and Toro Rosso, is incredible,” Gasly said.

“So [I’m] really proud of these guys, and also hopeful for the next year and what we can achieve. Because they have proved this year that they can perform at very high levels.”