Gasly says AlphaTauri’s pace was “embarrassing” in F1 Turkish GP

Pierre Gasly wants answers for what caused AlphaTauri’s “embarrassing” performance at the Turkish Grand Prix heading into the final rounds of the 2020 Formula 1 season. 

The Frenchman’s hopes of challenging for points were hit when he was subjected to a back-of-the-grid start following an FIA investigation after the team changed its mind to switch the power unit in his car. 

Gasly could only recover to 13th place in Sunday’s race, one position behind teammate Daniil Kvyat as both drivers struggled for pace in the treacherously wet conditions. 

“The whole weekend was really bad,” Gasly admitted. “So we had a very poor performance in the wet, and honestly, it’s a bit embarrassing, because we were just so slow with the wets, with the inters, we can't switch them on. 

“It was the same in quali. We took a penalty, so a lot of problems. We need to do better, because honestly, it was a poor performance from our side since yesterday morning. We'll have to work for the next races.”

Gasly believes AlphaTauri should have performed better in Turkey after a strong showing at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix where he qualified fourth, before Kvyat finished in that position in the race. 

“It was obviously was very unique conditions that I don't expect we're going to face [again],” Gasly explained. “But just for all of us, I think we need to understand what went wrong and what didn't work.

“We already have some answers from yesterday, but we could not make the changes for today. But still, we should have anticipated all these things and I think we could have done a better job. But now it's done and we need to look at the next three races.”

After AlphaTauri’s 10-race run of finishing inside the points came to an end at Istanbul Park, it suffered a huge blow in its hopes of challenging Ferrari for sixth place in the constructors’ world championship. 

Ferrari enjoyed its best result of the season with a 27-point haul thanks to Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc finishing third and fourth respectively, leaving AlphaTauri trailing its Italian counterparts by 41 points with just three races remaining in 2020.