Franz Tost, AlphaTauri F1 team boss, claims that Pierre Gasly “can still improve”. He believes that the French driver can do better than the stunning last season.
AlphaTauri runs with Gasly and his rookie team mate Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver could not outperform his team-mate during his maiden campaign.
Gasly had to share his burden and drag the team’s score on the constructors’ championship. He put his best efforts to keep the Alpine at bay. But unfortunately, the team lost fifth place to Alpine.
Gasly has out-performed his previous record especially after demotion from Red Bull. He was borrowed and returned to then known as Toro Rosso team. Currently, his performance is following an upward trajectory and has been applauded for it.
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Last season, Gasly has found himself in a comfortable position where he was able to perform. He performed consistently where he managed front three rows on 16 occasions during qualifying sessions. It helped him to increase his standing on the drivers championship to ninth place with 110 points.
Tost, team pricinpal, acknowledged Gasly who “made a big step forward”. Nonetheless, he believes there is more potential that Frenchman can still unlock.
“He has fantastic potential, but what’s important is I have still the feeling he can improve,” Tost said.
“Because that’s decisive if you’re on this level and if we provide him next year with competitive car he will be there, 100%.
“From the driving he has now the experience how to set-up the car, how to manage the tyres, he can read the race, which is very important, you can hear this on the radio the questions he is asking.
“He made this year another big step forward, a real big step forward. And once more if our car works, he will be there.”
Tost admitted that Gasly’s ambition to win world championship title can be demanding.
“It depends which ingredients we get together,” Tost replied.
“If the car works well, I don’t see a reason why we shouldn’t have success with it. But to talk about fighting for a championship…
“The infrastructure from our team is good, it’s getting better and better, but if I compare it with Mercedes, with Red Bull Racing, with Ferrari, McLaren, then we are still steps behind.
“But this does not mean we cannot successfully from time-to-time fight against them.”
