Pierre Gasly is “always hungry for more” as he looks to build on his strong 2020 season with AlphaTauri.
The Frenchman has been one of Formula 1’s strongest drivers since returning to the Italian team midway through 2019, claiming a first podium in Brazil and then a maiden win at Monza last year.
His performances would ultimately see Gasly finish 10th in the Drivers’ Championship, ahead of names like Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll and Esteban Ocon, all of whom arguably had faster cars.
“I put my good results last year down to being more experienced, as it was my third season in F1 and also the first time I had stayed for a second full season with the same team,” he said as AlphaTauri launched their new car on Friday.
“The continuity from 2019 paid off, working with the same engineers, having a better understanding of what we are doing and as a team we all succeeded in exploiting the experiences from the previous two years.
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“I was really satisfied, but there is still room for improvement, room for fine-tuning,” he noted. “What you need over the whole year is to be consistent and to score at every opportunity.
“I’m always hungry for more, so I’m sure we can achieve great things also in 2021.”
AlphaTauri was able to fight more regularly in the upper midfield towards the end of last season and though the competition will be fierce, Gasly does hope to continue that form into this year.
“We need to see how the car goes in Bahrain and then we’ll know more, but the key will be consistency and not to make any mistakes,” he said.
“Where we are in the midfield, all the teams made a lot of progress and the gaps are very small.
“We finished seventh in the championship, but there were times when we were fighting to be the fourth or fifth best car in the field.
“We were fighting some very good teams that have big budgets and a lot of experience, but we had a car that allowed us to fight with them and I got through to Q3 quite often.
“This year I hope we can make a step up, that will allow us to be nearer the front of the midfield.”