"I wouldn’t say that I’m pleased" - Pierre Gasly not happy with Alpine's performance at start of season 

Pierre Gasly has said that he's not entirely happy with where Alpine are at the start of the season. The French driver moved from AlphaTauri to Alpine this season.

While the car he drove last season struggled massively, he's in a much better position this season. Having said that, the car still has not matched the pre-season expectations set by the team.

Alpine expected to consolidate P4 in the championship, but the car looks P5 at best. Moreover, Gasly suffered a major collision with teammate Esteban Ocon in Australia and lost a lot of points. Talking about the start of the season, Gasly said that it was not the best start to the season for him or the team, telling Motorsportweek:

“I wouldn’t say that I’m pleased because we obviously want to fight higher up the grid and it feels like so far we’re a bit in no man’s land behind the top four teams.

"I had a bit of the midfield behind us, even though it’s really close, but we are still chasing and trying to get closer to those front runners. But generally, I think it’s been an OK start, a decent start, but as a team, we want to be fighting for bigger points.”

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Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon apologise to each other for the crash

Both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly suffered a major clash in Australia, which was a result of the latter going off at turn 1 during the red flag restart.

After the race, team boss Otmar Szafneur said that the crash won't have a major impact on the budget cap and that the two drivers apologised for the crash. He said:

"It won't be a big deal for the budget cap, but this has changed our priorities. Now it will take a lot of effort at the factory to produce the spare parts in time for Baku and then work on the developments. Luckily there are three weeks off before the next race. We hope to make it in time and not have problems for Baku and Miami.

He added:

“Both apologised, which means both thinking they did something wrong. Also seeing the onboards, as much as I can try to blame one of them, I see it as a racing accident. Ocon tried to follow Tsunoda, Gasly was getting back on the ideal race line and it happened. It can happen.”

Pierre Gasly will hope for a much stronger weekend in Baku, a track where he's had decent success in the past.