Gasly keen to quickly move on from 'very bad' Baku weekend

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Next weekend's Miami Grand Prix can't come soon enough for Pierre Gasly after Alpine's debacle last weekend in Azerbaijan.

Gasly's hardship began as soon as Friday's practice session when the Frenchman was forced to abandon his car after an exhaust issue led to a fire at the rear of his A523.

Unfortunately, the setback was followed in the afternoon by Gasly's crash in qualifying which left him at the rear of the grid on Sunday.

His painstaking two-stop race never saw the Alpine charger progress higher than P14 where he finished his day, excessively frustrated and disappointed.

"We’ve got to move on very quickly from this race weekend because it’s been very bad, and very far from what we have showed so far this year," Gasly commented after Sunday's race.

"So we’ve got to understand to make sure it never happens again.

"We clearly are not where we want to fight, and where we should be fighting, so we’ve got to understand and make sure we don’t underperform that way in the future."

Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2023 Azerbaijan GP

Gasly's teammate Esteban Ocon spent most of his race running among the top ten after opting for an ambitious one-stop strategy and banking on a late safety car.

The latter never materialized however, forcing Ocon to undertake his costly stop on the final lap of the race, which pushed him down to P15, just behind his teammate.

Formula 1's Baku-Miami double header, while grueling for crews, will at least offer Alpine and its drivers a chance to turn around their fortunes after two pointless events.

And within the context of a normal weekend schedule, Miami will also allow the Enstone squad to gain more knowledge on the upgrade package that was introduced in Baku.

"We can test more and understand a bit more about the package and figure out a bit more what didn’t work this weekend," added Gasly.

"We showed some good performance in Melbourne - Jeddah and Bahrain were also definitely better than this weekend.

"I’m sure we will test a lot and I’m happy [Azerbaijan] is done because it was pretty frustrating, and we’ve got to focus on next weekend now."

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Phillip van Osten

Motor racing was a backdrop from the outset in Phillip van Osten's life. Born in Southern California, Phillip grew up with the sights and sounds of fast cars thanks to his father, Dick van Osten, an editor and writer for Auto Speed and Sport and Motor Trend. Phillip's passion for racing grew even more when his family moved to Europe and he became acquainted with the extraordinary world of Grand Prix racing. He was an early contributor to the monthly French F1i Magazine, often providing a historic or business perspective on Formula 1's affairs. In 2012, he co-authored along with fellow journalist Pierre Van Vliet the English-language adaptation of a limited edition book devoted to the great Belgian driver Jacky Ickx. He also authored "The American Legacy in Formula 1", a book which recounts the trials and tribulations of American drivers in Grand Prix racing. Phillip is also a commentator for Belgian broadcaster Be.TV for the US Indycar series.