Pierre Gasly opened up about what he feels is ‘inconsistencies’ in the new Formula 1 power units, and finding workarounds to extract performance ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly said he agrees with Oscar Piastri’s evaluation of the new PU for 2026. Piastri said after Spa-Francorchamps that the unreliability of the PUs made for a “pretty crap way of going racing”, as qualifying was being decided “by computers behaving or misbehaving.”
When asked about Piastri’s comments on the inconsistency of power deployment, Gasly told media: “I fully agree with him. I think there are different elements to it.
“I think one is the inconsistency, because of how complex it is.
“One lap, you might gain a tenth and a half, and the other lap, for some reason, it doesn’t quite come. And then in qualifying, you can see the variation, and if you’re unfortunate that in the one lap that matters, it’s not optimum, then it can cost you a couple of places. Which is never nice.
PU punishing risk “doesn’t feel right,” says Gasly
The Frenchman went on to explain how, due to energy management with these PUs, he doesn’t feel that taking risks to boost lap time is being rewarded anymore because the battery power is being drained.
“I think the other element is it doesn’t always reward the risk you’re taking, and trying to go as fast as you can through the corners, risking it, making lap time in the corners, potentially sliding a bit more, overheating the tyres a bit more, [it] comes with a disadvantage later on with the clipping that you get. Which to me, this doesn’t feel right, because from a very young age, I’ve always been told to go as fast as you can through the corners.
“But then considering all of that, at the end of the day, we get given the same thing, and you’ve just got to be smart in how you approach things. And unfortunately, it means that there are places where you’ve got to do a compromise, whether you like it or not.
“So yeah, it’s definitely not ideal. But once you know the limit of the system, you’ve got to find a way to just work best around it.”
Gasly will be looking to bounce back after a tricky weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, as Alpine attempts to free itself from a rut behind its midfield rivals.
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