Pierre Gasly on the Sebastian Vettel collision: “I guess I’m the one to be blamed”

Pierre Gasly on the Sebastian Vettel collision: “I guess I’m the one to be blamed”

Pierre Gasly understands why he recieved a penalty for the contact with Sebastian Vettel.

Pierre Gasly had a frustrating weekend in Austria. On the first day, while on a fast lap, Gasly felt he had been hindered by a Ferrari driver, and exclaimed over the radio: “This f***ing guy! What a f***ing idiot! Can’t even look in your mirrors!” and the second day was not any less frustrating for the Frenchman.

At the start of the sprint race, on the run down to turn 1, Pierre Gasly collided with Lewis Hamilton, derailing the Frenchman’s race to an extent. He had also been involved in a start incident with George Russell and Zhou Guanyu in Silverstone, a race from which he eventually retired.

Aside from a very good 5th place in Azerbaijan (a track where he had stood on the podium in 2021), Gasly’s fortunes since Australia have not been particularly amazing. AlphaTauri as a whole have looked quite a bit worse than last year, and currently sit in 8th place, behind Haas by 7 points.

Also Read: “What a f**cking idiot” Pierre Gasly expresses his frustration with Ferrari driver

Pierre Gasly thinks AlphaTauri can write off Austrian GP weekend

Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly

In a press release from AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda talked about their weekend. The Frenchman said: “I think we can write off this weekend, we just didn’t have the pace. I haven’t seen the footage yet, but I obviously received a penalty in the race, so I guess I’m the one to blame for the incident with Sebastian.”

On lap 40, Sebastian Vettel attempted to overtake Pierre Gasly on turn 4 from the outside, but the two made contact, and Vettel spun into the gravel. For this incident, Gasly received a 5-second time penalty. Elaborating on this, he said: “I tried to fight as hard as I could, it’s always tricky in that corner and unfortunately he spun.” the corner is indeed tricky, as there was an almost identical first-lap incident with Sergio Perez going off into the gravel after contact with Sergio Perez.

He added: “We need a big reset, we’ve got a week and a half to try and understand why we were slow and to understand what we can do to improve in the upcoming races. Hopefully, the new package allows us to move forward and be competitive in the midfield again.”

The next race is Pierre Gasly’s home Grand Prix, the French Grand Prix at the Circuit Paul Ricard, and he has scored points every time he has finished there. For the Constructors’ Battle, AlphaTauri certainly need a step forward to be more competitive with Haas and Alfa Romeo.

Also Read: “I want to fight for wins,” Sebastian Vettel demands progression from Aston Martin with contract negotiations around the corner

Also Read: Sebastian Vettel fined for inappropriate conduct at Driver’s meeting