Pierre Gasly has explained the area where he feels he must be in better shape during grand prix weekends.
Gasly has joined Alpine for the 2023 campaign after several years with AlphaTauri, Red Bull’s sister team.
However, the Frenchman feels that he has had difficulty extracting maximum pace from his new car in qualifying trim.
At the season-opening round in Bahrain, Gasly struggled behind the wheel of his car and dropped out in Q1, setting the slowest time in the session which forced him to line up at the back of the field.
However, he progressed into the points on Sunday before heading to Saudi Arabia, where he advanced to Q3 but was once again out-paced by team-mate Esteban Ocon.
Speaking ahead of the upcoming race in Melbourne, Gasly says he hopes to have a stronger performance over one lap.
“We made it back-to-back top tens for 2023 in Jeddah, which is a positive start to my career at Alpine, even if we left Saudi Arabia wanting more,” he said.
“On my side, it was a quiet race, filled with learning about the car and the things we need to do to keep improving.
“We probably didn’t make the step we needed between Friday and Sunday and that’s something we need to look into to make sure we’re maximising everything from the weekend.
“I need to keep working hard with my engineers in order to be in better shape for Qualifying, as we’re still not where we want to be on single-lap pace and getting the car into a good window to compete for higher places.”
Last year, Gasly took ninth place at the Australian Grand Prix – the first time he scored points at the event from Albert Park.
With Alpine seemingly in possession of a car that is capable of fighting at the front of the midfield, Gasly says he is hoping to take home a strong haul of points this Sunday.
“Albert Park is a great circuit and another different challenge for us this year,” he said. “We’ve seen how we are at a conventional circuit in Bahrain, a fast street circuit in Saudi Arabia, and now we will see how we are at Albert Park, which is different in characteristics.
“It’s a fun circuit, quite bumpy in places and we have to be immediately on it if we’re to come away with a satisfactory feeling and points on the board.
“Australia is a place where I’ve not scored as many points as I’d have liked in my Formula 1 career, so it’s time to put that right this weekend.”
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