Scuderia AlphaTauri F1 British Grand Prix practices - A tough day 16.07.2021: FORMULA 1 Pirelli British Grand-Prix Silverstone Circuit Friday, July 16th 2021 Pierre Gasly (AT02-05, Car 10) First Practice Session - Best lap: 1:28.449 pos. 11th, 28 laps Qualifying - Best lap: (Q1) 1:27.600, (Q2

FORMULA 1
Pirelli British Grand-Prix
Silverstone Circuit
Friday, July 16th 2021




Pierre Gasly (AT02-05, Car 10)
First Practice Session - Best lap: 1:28.449 pos. 11th, 28 laps
Qualifying - Best lap: (Q1) 1:27.600, (Q2) 1:27.273, pos. 12th  


“Since FP1 we’ve struggled with the car balance, far more than usual. We made some changes for Qualifying, but it just wasn’t enough. I was happy with my lap in Q2 but as I crossed the line, I knew it wasn’t going to be enough, it was just so tight out there today.

I think it’s going to be hard the next few days, because we can’t make changes to the car anymore. We only have FP2 to understand the tyre better ahead of the Sprint Qualifying and Sunday’s race, but we’ll fight as hard as always, it’s a different format and lots of things can happen, you never know.”


 


Yuki Tsunoda (AT02-06, Car 22)
First Practice Session - Best lap: 1:28.600 pos. 12th, 29 laps
Qualifying - Best lap: (Q1) 1:28.043, pos. 16th  



“After FP1 I’d started to get used to the circuit, but I had a lot of traffic and never managed to put together a perfect lap. So, going into Qualifying after just one session was always going to be difficult.



It’s a shame to be out in Q1 today, but the field was really tight at the end and I struggled again with traffic on my final push lap. Starting tomorrow from P16 I think will be difficult, but I’ll give it everything I’ve got during Sprint Qualifying and we’ll see what I can do.”

Jonathan Eddolls (Chief Race Engineer)


“It’s been a tough day for us here in Silverstone. We haven’t been able to show the performance we expected or had demonstrated at previous races. With the new Sprint Qualifying format, FP1 was focused on normal Qualifying preparation and sustainable running. The performance on the Mediums was aligned to our expectations, but when fitting the Softs we struggled more than we expected.


We analysed the data and made some changes for Qualifying, but without the usual sessions before entering Parc Ferme, we weren’t able to tune the car as much as we would do normally. The changes made did improve the car, but they were not enough to enter into Q3. Yuki was looking set to progress into Q2, but a traffic jam in the last corner when starting his final lap cost him nearly 0.2s before turn one – he did well to make most of this time back, but sadly it was not enough.



Pierre’s laps were clean, but we just didn’t have the pace today, so we really need to work on understanding this, as it’s still not clear to us why we are struggling. We now have another practice session to focus more on long run performance and tyres, so I am confident we can extract more from the car in Sprint Qualifying and eventually the race.”


 
- Fabiana Valenti, photos Red Bull