Pierre Gasly pinpoints Alpine benefits from latest upgrades: “It seems like the right direction”. Pierre Gasly's comments on the Austin qualifying and Alpine benefits from latest upgrades.

Alpine’s Best Qualifying of the Year
The updates that Alpine brought to the Austin circuit seem to have had a significant impact. At Circuit of the Americas, Pierre Gasly (the only one with the development package available) was indeed a standout, achieving an unexpected seventh place in qualifying: for Alpine, this is the best grid position of 2024, tying with that from Montmeló (also thanks to #10).

It remains to be seen how the upgrades will perform over the long term, something the team (in “McLaren” mode this weekend) couldn’t adequately assess since the Texas weekend is a Sprint weekend, thus allowing only 60 minutes of practice. But the former AlphaTauri driver is optimistic about tonight.

Pierre Gasly’s comments
“I’m very happy with our performance. It’s been a while since we reached Q3, and we’ve achieved our best qualifying result of the season. The car was very pleasant to drive. We made some changes after the Sprint Race, and while we’re still exploring this new package, it seems we’re finding the right direction and have good potential for the future,” commented the Frenchman. “For the GP, we will start from the seventh position on the grid and aim to score some points, as it’s been a while since we’ve been in the top ten. It would be a nice reward for the team after bringing this package to the car.” – Pierre Gasly revealed at the end of the Austin Qualifying session for the United States Grand Prix.

Esteban Ocon’s statements
“I had fun in the Sprint Race and made some nice overtakes,” added Esteban Ocon, who qualified 13th. “Unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace to do more, but it was a decent race, especially considering that this weekend I have the car with the old specifications. The car was a bit more challenging to drive in qualifying. However, the positive aspect is that the updates brought this weekend seem to be working, and that’s good for the future. As far as I’m concerned, the car was more competitive than what we’ve seen so far, and finishing in 13th position is a step forward, considering the cars around me had upgrades. We’ll start the race ahead of some of the cars we battled with in the Sprint Race; we hope for a good start and a solid strategy.” – he concluded.