Pierre Gasly - "Intense" F1 midfield proves changes 'a success'

Australian Grand Prix

Gasly - "Intense" F1 midfield proves changes 'a success'

The midfield battle has been fierce in the opening two races of the season

Sam Hall

Thursday 7 April 2022 16:15 Updated: 16:41

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Pierre Gasly believes "intense" fighting in the midfield proves the all-new F1 technical regulations are a 'success' despite the season being just two races old.

Eight of the 10 teams have scored points across weekends in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia with Aston Martin and Williams the outliers, compared to last season when it took 11 races for this many teams to register a top 10 finish.

The level of competition is reflected also in qualifying, with seven different constructors represented in each Q3 session so far - McLaren the only points-scoring team not to reach the top 10 shootout.

In such a congested midfield, Gasly has urged AlphaTauri to "capitalise on any opportunity".

"The battle between the teams is very intense already this year with two more teams than last year now seeming able to fight in the midfield," explained Gasly.

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"After two races we can already say that the new regulations have succeeded in making overtaking easier than before.

"It’s a very good thing that you can generally follow another car more closely and we saw the result of that with nice battles through the field, I think that’s a trend that will continue throughout the season."

Pirelli conclusions "complicated"

With the help of nine of the 10 teams last year, Pirelli completed significant mileage to develop its latest F1 tyre offering.

The rubber was expected to be more durable but although a one-stop strategy was possible in Saudi Arabia, this was not the case in Bahrain with most teams pitting three times.

"As for the tyres, the bigger ones do not seem to have changed much compared to the old ones, from what we can see so far," conceded Gasly.

"It’s a bit complicated to understand, because in Bahrain there were a lot more pit stops than we expected, while in Saudi it was just a one-stopper. So, I think it’s a bit too early to get a clear picture of tyre behaviour."