F1 News
Szafnauer explains difficulties for Gasly after incidents in Spain
- Toby McLuskie
Pierre Gasly was one of the protagonists during qualifying in Spain. The Alpine driver surprisingly qualified in fourth place, but was dropped to 10th due to grid penalties. The French do not want to go through this again, Otmar Szafnauer explained in a press conference.
During qualifying, the Frenchman got in the way of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari and Red Bull driver were in the middle of a fast lap when Gasly's Alpine forced them to brake. It earned him a three-spot grid penalty twice, dropping him back to 10th starting position. "We met for about an hour-and-a-half to discuss communication strategy, how we communicate with him, the information that he needs, the timing of the information that he gets, what he does with that information, just so we can get a little bit better," his team boss Otmar Szafnauer told said.
'Ocon more used to communication'
From fourth on the grid, Alpine could have brought in a load of points. "We have to make sure that when we qualify that high we can actually race there and we will do some things differently, especially on Pierre’s side." Esteban Ocon, who has been driving for the team for four years, is more used to the communication with his engineers, Szafnauer indicates as one of the reasons. But it is not all doom and gloom. Gasly himself is delighted with his team's form.
In Montreal, the former Red Bull-driver is not having much more luck for now. In the first free practice, he stopped his Alpine on track due to a steering wheel issue. His 'luck' was that free practice also came to an end for the competition, due to technical problems with the cameras monitoring the track.