Gasly: 'I hope I can fight at the front' in 2022 with AlphaTauri

Gasly, 26, finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship in 2021, but he frequently qualified inside the top six, despite driving against quicker cars in Q3 almost every race.

His performances earned plenty of praise, and sparked rumours of a return to Red Bull Racing, with whom he spent the first half of the 2019 season before being demoted back to Toro Rosso as it was known as then. However, Christian Horner opted to keep Sergio Perez alongside Max Verstappen for the upcoming year, leaving Gasly to stay at AlphaTauri.

At the launch of their new car, Gasly revealed his hopes for the new season.

Ready for any scenario

In an official press release from the team, Gasly admitted that his "approach will be the same as the one I adopted last year. I will be trying to build on the run I had of very good results and to continue to be on top of my game with the car I have."

Despite failing to regularly capitalise on strong qualifying performances in the races on Sunday last year, Gasly is optimistic of an improved season this time around. "I really hope that this is a year when I can fight at the very front, to finish regularly in the top five and even higher if the car is good enough for that," he revealed. "We must be prepared to deal with whatever situations arise. So, mentally I’ve prepared myself to deal with any possible scenario and personally, I will be pushing the team to always do its best.

"Last year we came very close to fifth place in the Constructors’ and it would be super to achieve that this year. It’s too early to say if that will be possible but I will always give it my best shot and get the most out of our car."

Gasly will have his chance to drive the new AlphaTauri car at the first pre-season test in Barcelona on Wednesday 23 February.