Pierre Gasly appeared satisfied with the performance of the new AlphaTauri in pre-season testing recently.
The Frenchman completed the most laps for any driver over the three days with 237, while rookie teammate Yuki Tsunoda impressed on the timesheet on the final day.
Those lap times by the Japanese were slightly erroneous after it emerged he was using DRS outside the permitted zones, but still Gasly, who was one of 2020’s top performers, saw a solid base in the AT02.
“I felt very good in the car, a lot better than last year at the same time, so it’s pretty positive,” he told Formula1.com.
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“All in all, I feel like we had a few issues which can be sorted. It doesn’t feel like there are any big weak areas on the car, which is a good start.
“Every year they [Honda] come with a bit of a surprise at the start of the year and so far we’re really happy, it’s working well, we didn’t have any reliability issues, we seemed to get some good power, so let’s see once we get to the first race and we push it flat out – but so far it’s been working really well.”
Last year. AlphaTauri found themselves in a rare position of battling with Ferrari in the midfield for much of the year, and Gasly does think the Scuderia can be in their sights again.
“I think Ferrari are kind of hiding and not showing too much,” he was quoted by F1i.com. “Compared to last year I think they are clearly better.
“I discussed it with [Charles] Leclerc after the test and we exchanged a couple of messages, talking but not too much, just trying to [laughing], have an idea!
“I think we are close to each other. I don’t know if they are ahead of us or if we are slightly ahead but they have clearly made a step forward.”