Pierre Gasly hopes Alpine‘s upgrades will work at the Miami Grand Prix following a disappointing weekend for the team in Azerbaijan.
The French team brought upgrades to Baku but could not test them out due to the limited free practice running and a run of difficult sessions across the sprint weekend.
“We had an upgrade coming in Baku, and we don’t feel like we’ve been really able to display the entire potential,” said Gasly ahead of the Miami GP.
“We’ve got quite a busy test plan in the practices and we’re looking forward to see where that puts us on a more traditional layout like it is in Miami.”
Gasly noted the unique layout of Baku didn’t suit the Alpine car as he struggled with balance issues due to the low-drag meaning less downforce.
“From how much downforce you’re lacking compared to another track, it’s difficult to say but we’re definitely confident and happy that the floor brought what it was supposed to bring,” added Gasly.
“Obviously again, we’ll double check that this weekend but we’re quite confident that it wasn’t the root cause of the poor performance.”
The former AlphaTauri driver in particular looks to bounce back, after suffering an engine failure in qualifying for Sunday’s race and also being eliminated in Q1 in the Sprint Shootout.
He did not score a points finish in either race, and neither did his teammate Esteban Ocon, as Alpine‘s highest weekend finish was 13th.
“Very happy to be racing again,” said Gasly. “There are only a couple of days after Baku and it’s important for all of us, for all of the team, because we want to clearly bounce back straight away after the weekend in Baku with the poor performance we showed.”
