Pierre Gasly says the impressive pace displayed by McLaren upgraded MCL60's in Austria is "not really a good sign" for Alpine's prospects.
McLaren introduced at the Red Bull Ring the first of three upgrade installments that the team has planned to roll out, with additional updates scheduled for this weekend at Silverstone and later this month in Hungary.
In qualifying and in race trim, Lando Norris was outpaced only by Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Ferrari's drivers, but the McLaren charger was well clear of Gasly, Alpine's fastest representative last weekend, who concluded Sunday's incident-packed event P10.
The Frenchman nevertheless felt that there were "definitely some positives" to take away from Austria for the Enstone squad.
"I think we maximised the race and the points that we could score today," Gasly said. "On the other side, it feels like we want more and we want to be fighting closer to that top five.
"At the moment, we’re just missing these two or three tenths to Fernando [Alonso] and the Mercedes that finished just ahead of us.
"We’ve got to keep pushing, keep developing the package we’ve got."
As the F1 season unfolds, so also are each teams' development programmes. Gasly admitted to feeling worried by the step forward that McLaren – its direct rival in the Constructors' standings – appeared to have taken in Austria.
But the 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner believes that Alpine's destiny is "in our hands".
"McLaren was extremely fast, which is not really a good sign for us, but at the same time it should motivate us. It shows that it’s possible to make big gains," he said.
"It’s all in our hands and I know we’ve got upgrades planned on the next few races, so [I’m] looking forward to seeing what it brings.”
"We know what the weaknesses of the car are and where we need to improve at the moment, but it’s not that easy to fix. Hopefully some of these upgrades are going to help that."
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