Feature

Team Talk - Sunday at The Circuit of the Americas

©Ferrari

Alpine F1

Pierre Gasly
“It’s been a frustrating afternoon where we did not fully extract the maximum potential. We had too many sub-optimal situations throughout the race, which is a pity as we started in a really good position and we had much higher ambitions than finishing outside the points. Things slipped away and we could have managed our race better, which is something we will review for next time. We covered the early pit-stop of Magnussen, then had a slow stop but, generally, we were lacking pace on the Hard tyre to be in a stronger position. It looks like our rivals are just that bit quicker at the moment and we must keep understanding our package and extracting everything from it. We have Mexico City next week – a unique track where we have another opportunity to learn and progress.”

Esteban Ocon
“Unfortunately, today my race was compromised by Turn 1 after being hit from behind, which caused me to spin and I fell to the back of the field. I managed to recover a few positions throughout the race, however, we were not in contention for much else after that. We decided right at the end of the race to pit and attempt the Fastest Lap on Softs, which we managed to achieve. We have positives to take from this weekend. The upgrades have shown to be working, especially in Qualifying yesterday, so I look forward to the team continuing to work in this direction and improve the car. Next up is Mexico City and hopefully we can be in a better position to be in contention for points.”

Oliver Oakes, team principal
“We can come away from this weekend in Austin with some positives, particularly with how our upgrade performed and converting that into the team’s best starting position of the season, lining up sixth on the grid. It’s a shame we could not capitalise on our good starting position, we struggled in the second stint and need to analyse that. The team has been working incredibly hard on pit stops this season with lots of noticeable improvements in recent races. These things happen in racing, and we win and lose as a team. We’re looking forward to going again in Mexico City in a week’s time.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.