The weekend had a weak start for BWT Alpine F1 team. Neither driver managed to get a lap in softs as there as a red flag in practice and then in SQ1 both cars were sent out together. Doohan was caught up behind his teammate and mechanics which then saw another couple of cars get ahead of him and he was unable to make it to the stary line for his last flying lap. He was frustrated as Gasly had already qualified for SQ2 and had not needed to be on track.
Pierre Gasly: Today was important as we had just one Free Practice session to prepare for Sprint Qualifying and the weekend ahead. This morning’s FP1 was very tricky, but we made some good progress and improvements ahead of Sprint Qualifying this afternoon. We lacked some grip at the start of the last run in SQ2 as the tyres still felt a bit cold and that meant that I lost two tenths there however there was more grip later in the lap. We will review today’s work and analyse the learnings. The focus is now to work with the engineers to prepare for tomorrow’s Sprint Race.”
Jack Doohan: “Of course, from the result, it was not the end to Sprint Qualifying we were hoping for. The feeling in the car was good and we felt good heading into the session. On the final run, we lost places in the queue in the pitlane with the car having to be pushed back by the mechanics, which meant we were out of position and chasing to make it to the line in time. It’s frustrating not to be able to put in a second fast lap, particularly with the improvement in lap time we saw and potential in the car. It's something we’ll review and debrief as a team on.”
Poor conditions caused problems before the Sprint even began on Saturday, with red flags up on the formation lap. When the race was finally able to begin under improved conditions, it became chaotic and Gasly finished in 11th whilst Doohan finished 16th. Multiple penalties were given to other drivers which pulled Galy up to 8th place where he received one point. For Sunday’s Grand Prix Gasly qualified 18th and Doohan qualified 14th after making it to Q2.
Pierre Gasly: “It is not the Qualifying result we had hoped for. We made a few changes to get the car in a better place for this session but in the end, we were not fast enough on all the runs so we need to analyse why we lacked in performance. There are some other details to look at, as the car did not feel the same as previously in the weekend… It is good to get a point from this morning’s Sprint Race after some cars got penalties, we moved up to P8. Now we can sit down as a team and work on preparing for tomorrow’s race.”
Jack Doohan: “It was a better end to Qualifying today. Of course, it would have been great to progress through to Q3, but I felt the car was in a good window and we pushed to get what we could out of the session. We were on the pace quite quickly in Q1 and our first sector was quite strong. With such close margins across the grid, it is the small things which come into play to make the difference between positions. We will debrief tonight to see what gains can be made and see what is possible tomorrow…The aim will be to hold onto our position and set ourselves up to optimise the opportunities that arise for us to progress forward.”
Race day continued the poor weekend for Alpine. Doohan made contact with Lawson in Turn 1 on the opening lap which gave him a puncture meaning he couldn’t get back to the pits and had to bring out a VSC. Gasly started in the pit lane after he made some changes overnight but wasn’t able to gain enough traction to speed up the ranks, only recovering to P13.
Pierre Gasly: “Overall, it has been a difficult weekend for us. At least we are leaving Miami with one point following the Sprint Race yesterday, which was a bit unexpected. We knew that today’s race was going to be tricky after having had a couple of issues on the car which we tried to fix for today. It was a little bit better but ultimately, we lacked pace… We need to do some analysis on the performance we had here as we have been faster in previous races, and it has been complicated here. We have work to do between now and the next race in Imola.”
Jack Doohan: “It was a tough end to the weekend for my side of the garage. We were starting from the middle of the pack which always creates a challenge coming into the first few corners. We were squeezed going into Turn 1 and with nowhere to go we had contact with [Liam] Lawson. The damage was too much to make it back to the pitlane safely and we ultimately had to retire the car. We showed some promise in the Sprint Race, especially in managing the difficult weather conditions, and I have felt comfortable in the car across the weekend… We have the week ahead to reset and work to prepare for the upcoming triple-header as we head into the start of the European season.”
