After a decent start to the final race weekend of 2021 Alpha Tauri drivers, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda secured two top 10 finishes each in FP1 and FP2 and agree there is still more work to be done to reach their Q3 goal.   

The action is back on the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi for the season finale. Although the track itself is not new for F1, this year the layout has changed and the teams have to make crucial adjustments in the FP1 and FP2 sessions ahead of the final race of the season. For the Alpha Tauri team, it was a decent start to the final race weekend of 2021  as both drivers finished in the top 10 for both of the practices. Pierre Gasly was P7 in the first practice session and ended his day in 10th. Yuki Tsunoda on the other hand managed to finish higher than his french teammate with a P5 in FP1 and 7th in FP2. Both Gasly and Tsunoda seemed to enjoy the new track layout, they both agree that more work needs to be done if they are going to achieve a top 10 result in Q3 for qualifying.

 Gasly approached his practice session results in Abu Dhabi in a practical manner and expressed some uncomfortableness in the ATO2.   

“The layout is really different, it feels like a new track with a lot more high-speed corners, so it’s really cool. We tried some different things with the car today, but I still haven’t felt that great, so we’ve got some work to do for tomorrow,” replied Gasly.

Tsunoda on the other hand seemed pleased with the teams’ progress over the two practice sessions and believes the car has a good race pace for a chance into Q3.  

“I’ve already driven here for the Young Driver Test last year and of course knowing the track beforehand always helps with my approach to the weekend, which hasn’t always been the case this season,” stated Tsunoda.

“I’m really enjoying the new layout of this circuit, we’ve still got some things to work on but I think the pace so far is quite good. We’ve got a lot of data across the two cars, so we’re in a good position to continue to improve tomorrow.” 

“My aim is to get through to Q3 in Quali again, as we’re looking quite strong here and then our race pace is looking good also, so we just need to put it altogether when it counts.”

Jonathan Eddolls, Chief Race Engineer at Alpha Tauri explained how the new layout of the track affected the team’s day with the majority of FP1 devoted to understanding the changes that were made to the track while looking into trye degradation on the soft tyres for FP2.   

“There have been a number of changes made to the circuit since 2020, so we spent the majority of FP1 understanding how these affect the circuit characterisation, with fewer low-speed corners and now more medium speed left handers.

“We were concerned that graining could be an issue with the softest tyre choice, especially in FP2 with cooler track temperatures, but they held up better than expected, so we will need to see how that impacts Qualifying and the race.” 

“We tested some alternative setup directions across the two sessions with both cars and focused more on the long run pace. This meant our short run competitiveness wasn’t quite where we typically are for a Friday, but we expect to make an improvement tomorrow, once we have analysed all of the data and put the optimum car setup together.”