Gasly hails ‘best start to a season’ after “successful” first half of F1 2021

The Frenchman is eighth in the drivers’ championship, scoring a podium at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. 

Gasly’s qualifying record has been impressive, progressing into Q3 at all but two races. 

Reflecting on the season ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, Gasly said: “I think it was probably the best start of the season I’ve ever had in F1. It was really successful. We’ve managed to secure one podium in Baku already this year, which was the highlight of these first 10 races. 

“We’ve had great Saturdays, great qualifying, putting the car in Q3 for most races and this is a great achievement. I think on Sundays it started not as great but we’ve managed to make some progress and managed to fight some pretty fast cars, sometimes the McLaren, sometimes the Ferrari.”

AlphaTauri sits sixth in the constructors’ championship, 20 points ahead of Aston Martin following Sebastian Vettel’s disqualification from the Hungarian Grand Prix after the team failed to give the FIA an adequate fuel sample.

Since 2008 - under the Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri names - the Faenza-based outfit’s best finish in the constructors’ championship was sixth in 2008 and 2019. 

With AlphaTauri in the fight with Alpine for fifth, Gasly says this fact highlights the team’s impressive progress. 

“We can see our battle in the championship shaping up with Aston Martin and Alpine,” Gasly added.

“We are fighting for the fifth position in the championship, which has never happened for the team before, which just shows we are having a great year and it is my personal target to bring this position to these guys and this will be a first. It’s a pretty exciting season so far for us.”