Alpine’s Pierre Gasly has admitted Haas’ recent pace in race conditions has been “mind-blowing” amid the American outfit stealing a march in Formula 1’s midfield.
Kevin Magnussen finished in seventh place in Mexico last weekend, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and behind the three-time World Champion Max Verstappen.
Meanwhile, Haas team-mate Nico Hulkenberg came home in ninth place, edging out Gasly as he put an end to Alpine’s barren run with a single point in 10th place.
But despite helping the Anglo-French marque to close on Williams, the Frenchman was concerned with the impressive speed of Haas prior to the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Alpine is ninth in the Constructors Championship, three points behind Williams, and with Haas right up there, it leaves little points on offer for the Enstone-based squad.
“I think on paper its quite tough to [compete with] Haas,” Gasly told media including Motorsport Week earlier this week.
“On Sunday [in Mexico], like, really was kind of mind-blowing to see the pace of Magnussen.
“Looking back, he was even slightly faster than Max on that last stint, so they do seem to have a lot of pace.
“I think obviously we’ll try to get them, but objectively, I feel like in the quali, I’m able to fight there.
“In the race, we are lacking a bit with the hard tyre, especially, which hopefully on this track, it’s quite different with the tyre being anti-clockwise, and quite a lot more demanding, so hopefully this can go in our favour.”
Gasly optimistic about upgrades from Austin
In Mexico, Alpine scored its first point since the Dutch Grand Prix back in August, but time is running out for it to end the season higher than ninth place overall.
The updates brought by the team in Austin showed glimpses of hope and at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez it proved effective with Gasly able to reach Q3.
Speaking about the performance of the car after last weekend, Gasly added: “I think Austin was a massive part of the performance on Sunday, came from just being out of the right tyre temperature window, so I think the car had some potential, the tyres were just not in the right window.
“We know why, I think the potential 11th, 10th was on the table.
“Just on quali, I think we’ve done a very good job both weekends, and yeah, I think this weekend hopefully can be again the case.
“What I’m happy about is, you know, in Singapore, Baku, we were 15th, 16th.
“Looking at all our simulations, we knew if there is no Safety Car, and we don’t benefit from any scenarios, we will not really get points.
“Whereas now, we seem to be in a position where we know we’re going to be there or thereabouts, so definitely the next week is more exciting for the rest of the year.”
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