Pierre Gasly says the upgrades that AlphaTauri will begin to roll out at Imola this weekend will likely determine the Italian outfit's position in the pecking order in the coming months.
AlphaTauri currently sits P8 in the Constructors' standings, with Gasly scoring points in Saudi Arabia and in Australia last time out and teammate Yuki Tsunoda finishing among the ten in the opening round in Bahrain.
But after three rounds of observation, teams have returned to Europe and are ready to kick off their development programmes in earnest in the upcoming rounds.
Taking stock of his AlphaTauri's opening salvo, Gasly admitted that the Faenza-based squad needs more performance to remain among F1's top tier midfield contenders.
"We know we still have work to do," said the Frenchman. "We must bring more performance to the package and that's the plan for Imola this week.
"Then, looking at the other teams, we saw that McLaren and Alpine were very quick so that, with the three top teams out in front, we found ourselves 11th in qualifying [in Australia].
"It's very close in the midfield, but we don't need to find much performance to be able to improve. It would be nice if we can make a step forward in Imola."
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend will include the first of F1's three Sprint events which means that teams will only have one 60-minute practice session before Friday's qualifying, a schedule that isn't conducive to the introduction of major parts.
Nevertheless, Gasly is excited to discover even the minor updates that could help AlphaTauri's new-generation AT03 gain some performance relative to its rivals.
"We should have a couple of new parts on the car and it's not like we are dead slow," said the 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner.
"I don’t think we are missing much, but we need to come up with some development if we want to keep up with the other guys.
"So personally, I'm very excited to see what it brings. It's a new car, new regulations. We know that this season is all about development.
"The teams that manage to develop their cars faster than others will have a better season. I think it's a big test for us, and hopefully it brings the performance we expect."
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