13/11/2021
NEWS STORY
Pierre Gasly: "We had a terrible start today, I lost three positions into Turn 1 and just didn't have the pace to come back at the Ferraris and McLaren. It clearly wasn't the start of the race we expected, so we'll look at what we can do better for tomorrow. That wasn't the easiest day for us, especially as the last few laps on the soft tyre were really difficult. As you know, it's never over until the chequered flag, so we'll look at the strategy tonight and do everything we can to come back stronger tomorrow."
Yuki Tsunoda: "I'm not happy with today. I lost too many positions on the first lap and after that I couldn't maximise the performance from the soft tyre. Due to the format this weekend, I haven't completed that many laps here, but I learnt a lot from today that I can take away and look at tonight ahead of the race tomorrow."
Guillaume Dezoteux (Head of Vehicle Performance): "We completed a good programme this morning during FP2, managing to compare the medium and soft tyres on both cars. We also carried out our pit stop training, which is very useful for the drivers and mechanics, in preparation for the race tomorrow. The tyre choice for Sprint Qualifying was a complicated one and generated some heated discussions between us. For Yuki, it was pretty clear a soft tyre would help us to attack at the start of the sprint however the situation was less straightforward for Pierre. Starting from P4, we had to weigh up the risk between a strong start on the Softs or a more consistent race on the Mediums, with more performance available from the tyres in the last laps. Unfortunately, it didn't go well for us. Both cars lost positions in the first lap, despite being on the softest tyre and once the situation settled, we were not seeing the pace we had expected. Pierre finished eighth, still in front of both Alpines, which is important for the race tomorrow, and Yuki finished 15th after losing a position to Stroll in the last laps. We will analyse the data in detail tonight to understand why we were struggling more this afternoon and what our approach for tomorrow should be. The race will be more difficult, as we are starting further back, but we still have a chance to score useful points."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Interlagos, here.