Pierre Gasly expects his Alpine to explain why they gave a preferential strategy to their other car when it was running behind him.
The two Alpines were running fifth and eighth on lap 15, Gasly ahead of Esteban Ocon, when their race took a decisive turn. Gasly picked up diffuser damage after being hit from behind by Lewis Hamilton, and Alpine pitted Ocon.
As Ocon was the first of Alpine’s drivers to pit, he stood to benefit compared to Gasly by running on fresher tyres first. Gasly came in two laps out of his team mate and was infuriated to discover Ocon had got ahead of him through the pit stops.
“What the fuck are we doing?” he asked race engineer John Howard. “I’m 1.5 seconds slower, I don’t have tyres!”
Later in the lap Howard asked for an update on his front wing. “The fucking tyre’s gone,” Gasly replied. “You’re ruining my race, for fuck’s sake!”
Alpine pitted him at the end of the lap, and when he found out he had lost a position to his team mate by prolonging his first stint he said to Howard “you must be kidding me”. Gasly was told to keep his head down, but he made his dissatisfaction clear.
“I don’t get how you can undercut me with the other car,” Gasly remarked later in the lap. “I really seriously don’t understand. You’ll have to explain [to] me.”
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Howard told Gasly he had the benefit of fresher tyres than some of the cars he was set to be fighting for position with, but the driver was not satisfied.
“Two laps,” said Gasly. “Two fucking laps. Anyway, don’t talk to me and let me drive.”
On lap 30 of 58 he brought up the topic again, telling the team: “I don’t get why you gave him my position.”
After the race, Gasly blamed three things for the undoing of his race: The contact with Hamilton, “these guys finishing me a couple of laps later” by not responding to his pit stop request, and Ocon pitting before him.
“It should not happen,” he said of the latter. “The leading car always has the priority, and we know it should not happen. So I’m sure we’ll learn from it and I’m sure it won’t happen again.”
Having admitted “I don’t know” why Alpine chose that strategy, Gasly said he expects to get answers post-season back at base.
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“I think the main conversation is to happen in the office, and I’m sure we’ll have it. It…
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