Gasly hoping for AlphaTauri’s first ‘clean weekend’ of the season in Spain RaceFans

In the summary: Pierre Gasly hopes AlphaTauri will have their first ‘clean weekend’ of the season in Barcelona.

In short

Gasly hopes for AlphaTauri’s first ‘clean weekend’ of the season in Spain

AlphaTauri is currently seventh in the constructors’ championship with 16 points but has made no significant upgrades to the AT03 for this weekend’s race. Gasly says he’s more concerned about the team enjoying a trouble-free weekend than the lack of updates compared to their rivals.

“I haven’t really read much about which team brings what,” Gasly says. “It’s more like trying to watch us over the last few weekends – what went right, what went wrong. How can we just maximize because I feel like so far in this season we haven’t really had a clean weekend.

“For various reasons, we were never really able to get a clean qualifying, a clean race, with no problems and maximizing the points at the end of the day, that’s what we have to do. In the middle of the field, we have six cars capable of finishing between seventh and tenth, so it’s quite difficult, but at the same time it’s a good challenge and it puts more pressure on us to perform at a higher level.

“Like last year, even sometimes we were performing at 98-99% of our potential and were still there. This year I don’t think we have that buffer compared to last year. We just have to be great every time, especially if we want to score points.

Andretti struggling with BMW works team transition, says Griffiths

Andretti Formula E team principal Roger Griffiths admits the team has struggled to adapt to the loss of BMW resources following the transition from a factory team to an independent outfit.

Andretti still uses a BMW powertrain, with only one homologation for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 seasons. However, the German brand left the series at the end of last year and the team has since struggled to find similar performance, despite maintaining access to BMW simulation and engineering facilities.

The team started the 2022 season relatively strong, with a third podium finish for Jake Dennis and a points finish for rookie Oliver Askew in Diriyah’s first race. However, Dennis struggled to score more than a handful of points and Askew hasn’t been able to find a competitive rhythm since.

“I think it’s thanks to us as a team moving from a factory BMW team to an independent team,” Griffiths explained. “We don’t quite have the resources we had before, we’re learning more about how to drive the car on our own.

“With this learning, there will always be one or two cases that don’t always work. I think we got caught up in Rome with the pace of the cars there and how it evolved and we just didn’t do enough. We reacted pretty well in Mexico but ultimately there were other challenges we faced there that held us back a bit. But we made progress each time. So every time we come out of a race, we understand the shortcomings we may have had, and how to work on them and improve.

Quotes: Hazel Southwell

Hadjar “really impressive”, says Hitech F3 boss

Hitech GP founder Oliver Oakes said he was impressed with how quickly Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar has adapted to the team so far in this year’s FIA F3 Championship.

The 17-year-old is part of the Red Bull Junior team and is playing his first season in the FIA ​​F3 championship. Hadjar finished third in this year’s Formula Regional Asian Series with the team before moving up to the FIA ​​F3 Championship, where he sits fifth after four races after winning the opening round in Bahrain.

“I think Isack was a bit of a surprise,” Hitech boss Oakes said. “Last year we had two really talented recruits and it was obvious to us that they were going to be really good, finding their feet. What surprised us with Isack was that he found his feet a lot more rapidly.

“I think what surprised me, more than his results, was how seriously he takes it, how much he studies with his engineer and it’s really nice to see at that age. Because normally it’s the battle, really, as a team – trying to get across to them that at F3 and F2 level you can be as talented as you want, but all the details matter. positioning on the track, your tire warm-up – it’s all so difficult with 30 cars and I think the way he’s handled it so far has been really impressive.

Quotes: Hazel Southwell

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