Gasly wants AlphaTauri to “revise” Austrian GP F1 strategy choices

Gasly was one of four drivers - teammate Yuki Tsunoda and the two Aston Martins - to start on Pirelli’s C5 tyre at the Red Bull Ring.

The decision to start on the softest compound meant Gasly was forced to switch to a two-stop strategy.

It ultimately proved to be slower as he was beaten by both Ferraris and Daniel Ricciardo, all of whom started outside the top ten on the medium tyre.

Gasly believes the decision to get into Q3 on the soft cost him a better result than ninth.

“It was probably harder than we expected,” Gasly said after the race. “We thought we would probably benefit a bit more from this two-stop, and it turned out that it was not ideal. Looking at the Aston Martin on the same strategy, looking at Yuki and myself, we seemed to struggle a bit more. 

“But we still came really close to the Ferraris, which had a very good race pace last weekend. I think it’s still a good day but I came really close to Charles. I would have liked to try something, but unfortunately I missed a lap.”

The Frenchman believes AlphaTauri simply didn’t have the pace to qualify inside the top ten on the medium after the decision was taken following Friday practice.

“We had to commit Friday night,” Gasly added. “We didn’t feel like we had the pace to do it [on mediums]. In terms of strategy we need to look at the numbers and see our approach to the weekend. 

“But McLaren made it work, Daniel [Ricciardo] starting from P13, managed to come back quite well with the one-stop. So there were some positives clearly to do the one-stop, but we’ll have to revise it.”