Gasly 'super excited about the new year' after Brazil podium

Pierre Gasly scored his first Formula One podium at the penultimate round of the season, racing Lewis Hamilton to the line in a straight out drag race. At the launch of the AlphaTauri AT01, the Frenchman shared the ambition of his teammate, Daniil Kvyat, and team boss, Franz Tost, for more results of a similar nature in 2020.

The launch of a new car will always breed an air of optimism among those present. No team aims for worse results in the previous season, but AlphaTauri have ample reason to be confident in their car.

Honda were showing continuous, rapid improvement in 2019 and the suspension, gearbox and hydraulics in the car all come directly from sister team Red Bull.

“I’m feeling really good, super excited about the new year,” said Gasly. “Of course, the winter break is always too long as a racing driver, but now that we have the car launch tonight, so it’s all pretty exciting.

“We finished the season pretty well with the podium in Brazil. We had a good couple of races, so we need to keep the momentum. The team has a great energy. Everybody is super motivated so we just need to get on track now.”

AlphaTauri target the top five with the AT01Read more

Having started the 2019 season with Red Bull only to be seemingly relegated back to Toro Rosso for the second half of the season, Alex Albon moving in the opposite direction, Gasly seemed to enjoy a stronger end to the year.

Asked what it is about the team that brings out the best in him, Gasly replied, “First of all, when I see a show like this tonight it just makes me really proud to be a part of this. The last two years have been pretty good.

“For sure, the podium in Brazil was the best race I have had in my career, but of course the target is to repeat this kind of performance as many times as possible and we will try to do this again this year."

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