Team Talk - Sunday in Shanghai

Alpine

Pierre Gasly

“It was a tricky race out there today and again, like last week, we finished 11th and just outside of the points. Unfortunately, after the race, a technical infringement meant we faced a DSQ. In terms of the actual race, though, I think the degradation probably caught most teams out by surprise in the race as it was much lower than expected and the one-stop proved doable. We extended our second stint after pitting early and took it to the chequered flag without any reward. In general, it has been a challenging weekend where we have not been as competitive as we would like. We will review these first two race weekends as a team to see what has gone well and what we have to work on. We’ve fallen short of scoring points twice and we know we have to improve that and I am sure we will. Japan is up next and we will aim to come back stronger there and put ourselves up the order.”

Jack Doohan

“It was good to complete a full race distance in the car this weekend. There were plenty of learnings to take from the race. Our pace was positive, especially towards the end of the race, and it was nice to be in amongst a few good battles. We showed some of our potential in racing conditions in keeping Isack [Hadjar] in the RB behind for more than 20 laps, especially considering their speed all weekend. It was unfortunate to receive the penalty that we did, and we will revisit it to ensure it does not happen again. Overall, we have made some positive steps forward as a team through testing and the first two races and, clearly, there are many areas for us to improve. We will keep our heads down for Japan in a few weeks and hope to bring in some points for the team.”

Oliver Oakes, Team Principal

“Today was a better day in comparison to Qualifying with both Pierre and Jack able to move forwards in the race. After the high degradation and graining we saw in the Sprint yesterday, the question was whether it was between a one or two-stop and, with the track improving, we quickly converged to a one-stop part way through the race and ran with the Hard tyres to the end. Pierre did well making up three positions on the opening lap again [same as the Sprint] and ended up 11th at the flag but was unfortunately disqualified for a technical infringement after the race. Jack had comparable pace to those around him and put up some good fights. Ultimately, we lacked a little here and we need to understand why we weren’t as competitive at this track and see where we can improve for future races.”