F1 News
AlphaTauri sees McLaren and Racing Point as the biggest challenges
- GPblog.com
AlphaTauri currently has seven points together, six by Pierre Gasly and one by Daniil Kvyat. They are facing a challenge, as the fight in midfield is fiercer than ever thanks to the small differences between the teams. At the same time, McLaren and Racing Point have taken a big step forward, so it's clear to both AlphaTauri drivers what needs to be done.
Racing Point and McLaren
In the AlphaTauri preview Pierre Gasly says: "After completing three races, I think we can say we have a car that is honest, although we know there are things that need to be improved, especially in terms of aero. We can find more performance there."
"The car has no major weaknesses in any particular area. We have to improve two or three things to get a car that is better balanced. The most important thing is to find a bit more downforce. Looking at our performance, we have to consider that, in the mid-field, several teams have made a big step from last year, especially Racing Point and McLaren."
"Right away that has made for a bigger gap between them and us. Williams has clearly made enormous progress and can now be considered as part of the mid-field battle as are Renault. Now it’s down to us to close on those in front and hopefully overtake them."
More difficult battles
Daniil Kvyat thinks a bit different about it, he says: "With three races behind us, it’s still a bit hard to identify the strengths and weaknesses of our car. We are still working, me and the engineers, to find a solid baseline that we can start from at every race. In general, I was pleased with the race pace, but in quali in Budapest I was less happy with the car. But we think we know why that was and we are planning to try something different at Silverstone this weekend to see if we can improve."
"The battle in the mid-field seems to be much closer than last year, for example, Racing Point has made a big step forward and they are ahead of us and I think that also applies to McLaren. Those two will make life tough." However, Kvyat repeats that if the basis for next weekend is good, they will be better off in the race.
His preference is to start from the tenth position or higher, because that gives them a better prospect. If that is feasible the team will show in qualifying on Saturday.