Pierre Gasly says AlphaTauri is in urgent need of upgrades after labeling the team's Austrian Grand Prix weekend "a disaster".
There was no sugar-coating the Frenchman's race at the Red Bull Ring where Gasly clocked in a lowly P15 - just one spot ahead of his teammate Yuki Tsunoda - after a difficult race.
After finishing Saturday's sprint event P14, Gasly had to compose on Sunday not only with an AT03 car that was once again significantly off the pace, but also with a five-second penalty for clashing with Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel and a second time sanction for exceeding track limits.
"The weekend was a disaster, apart from qualifying," said the disappointed Frenchman.
"But then we were nowhere, in terms of pace; I tried to do everything I can inside the car but at the moment there is just nothing to do, so I think we desperately need this upgrade on the car to be able to get any decent result.
“You look at Yuki, look at myself, even on the strategy we lost a position when we boxed but at the end of the day we just have no pace.
"You can do whatever you want, any strategy you want, with the speed we have at the moment [it won’t make a difference].
“[We] just can’t keep going like this so we need to reset, and as I said we should have some new parts coming and hopefully they come for France and we can show a better pace there."
AlphaTauri introduced a raft of changes on its car back in April at Imola, but only minor parts have been updates since.
Technical director Jody Egginton confirmed that the Faenza-based squad will implement some significant changes on its car at Paul Ricard next week.
"We’ve got a lot to review back at base," said the British engineer.
"Now our focus is to get our updates to the car ready for the French Grand Prix and get ourselves back into the midfield fight."
Gasly admitted that AlphaTauri's development programme was somewhat out of sync with its rivals, which explains in part the team's current relative weakness.
"It's not surprising if you don't have new parts," Gasly concluded.
"At the start of the year, we were fighting with the guys at the front. Now we're finishing 20-30 seconds behind, so we're losing four or five tenths per lap, and that's what we need to find."
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