AlphaTauri
Pierre Gasly
"I’m very happy to finish P8 today. It’s been an intense race, with a lot of overtakes and quite a few battles on track. In general, it hasn’t been an easy weekend and I didn’t feel that good in the car, but I managed to make it count in the race when it really mattered. I’m really pleased to give the team a few more points before going into the winter break and I’m glad we made the best out of the last one here in Abu Dhabi. I would like to say a big thanks to the whole team for this season. It has been a real pleasure to work with everyone, I think we took a big step forward in all areas and we’re really taking the fight in the midfield battles. Now we have a bit of time to enjoy the great things we achieved together this year and our first great win together. We’ll fully recharge the battery for next season to come back even stronger and try to achieve even better performances.”
Daniil Kvyat
“It’s frustrating as I would have wanted to finish the season with a better result, but unfortunately today I got stuck in a train behind Vettel and that cost a lot of time. I think the key point of the race was during the first stint: on the Soft tyres we expected the degradation to be on the rear but, instead, we finished the front tyres and when you have understeer you’re a sitting duck. I lost a couple of positions to some key cars before the virtual safety car which put me on the back foot. It’s a shame to finish just outside of the points as the pace was there, but recovering from the first stint was very hard. The season as a whole was alright, we had some really good races, and others where we should have scored more points, but for one reason or another, it didn’t happen. This is how things go sometimes, but I would like to thank everyone in the team for another intense season together.”
Jody Egginton, technical director
“As expected, tonight’s race has been quite tight in the midfield. The virtual safety car provided an opportunity to get onto the base tyre and push to the end of the race, allowing us to score with one car and get very close with the other. Pierre’s race was quite aggressive with some good moves to make up positions against cars which did not stop under the VSC, but unfortunately, Daniil was not able to get free of traffic, spending most of his race in a fight with Ocon and Stroll, which limited his chances to move forwards. Overall, this was an incredibly busy and intense season for the teams, both trackside and in Faenza and Bicester, so hopefully, we’ll be able to take a bit of time off over Christmas to recharge before we start again in 2021.”
Franz Tost, team principal
“First of all, congratulations to Aston Martin Red Bull Racing, Max Verstappen, and Honda for their fantastic victory, this was a very strong performance from their side. Regarding our team, both cars had a successful Qualifying making it to Q3 yesterday, so we started the race with Daniil in P7 and Pierre in P9. While this was a good result, it meant we were at a bit of a disadvantage as we had to start the race on the Option tyre. The virtual safety car was brought out on lap 10, followed by a full safety car and we called Pierre and Daniil in for a double stack at that time to change both onto the Base compound, which they ran until the end of the race. After the Safety Car, both drivers started to fight for positions, with Pierre managing to overtake Leclerc, Stroll and Vettel to finish in eighth position. Daniil got stuck in traffic and ended the race just outside the points in P11.
"This weekend the race pace was not at the level we expected, but in general Scuderia AlphaTauri had a fantastic season this year, we were strong and competitive, achieving 107 points in the Constructors’ Championship, which is the highest number we’ve ever scored in our Formula 1 history. It was a big success for the team, so a big thank you to everyone in the team, both in Italy and in the UK. Thank you also to our Japanese friends at Honda as they provided us with a very strong and reliable power unit. I also want to thank our drivers Pierre and Daniil, as their experience helped elevate us to a higher and more competitive level.”
