“It was no big deal” - Pierre Gasly sheds light on Alpine’s decision to swap cars during the final stages of the Canadian Grand Prix

Pierre Gasly believes both cars in the points made more difference than Alpine’s decision to swap drivers in the closing laps of the 2024 Canadian GP. Speaking to onsite media, the Frenchman believes that it was a necessary call as he was quicker than teammate Esteban Ocon.

Ocon was heard venting his fury at the decision during the race on his radio. In theory, Pierre Gasly was swapped to ninth place when Esteban Ocon got overtaken by Daniel Ricciardo. Alpine felt the former had the pace to catch up with the Australian compared to the latter, specially in the DRS zones. In reality, the RB driver was quicker than both Alpine drivers and it would have been difficult for either of them to overtake him on pure pace.

Pierre Gasly believes Alpine’s decision to swap the drivers made sense because he had the pace to overtake Ricciardo. He felt it took longer than expected but in terms of lap time, although the Frenchman was on the hard tire, the RB driver was on a set of medium tires.

Once the RB had overtaken Ocon, the pace in open air had already improved, enough to block the Alpine car behind. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old believes that the call by the team to finish both cars in the points made sense.

Asked about the decision involving Alpine’s call to swap drivers, Pierre Gasly said:

“I think it was first of all, I think the main news should be that we score points with both cars and that was looking at all the simulation this morning. None of them looked that it would be achievable. So definitely a very positive day for the team.

"The target was quite clear at the end, I was faster on the hard tyre towards the end of the race and I was right behind Daniel and as soon as Daniel overtook Esteban, the goal was for me for the other car to let me pass and for the last four laps, to try to overtake Daniel with the DRS. Took slightly more time than we would have liked but honestly it's no big deal.”

Reacting to Ocon’s radio to the media, Pierre Gasly added:

“What's tricky is these two laps is just for Daniel to break the DRS and then when you do it two laps at the end it's too far away. But then as he would have done slightly earlier than potentially, I'm in the DRS and you get slightly more chances but honestly it's no big deal.

"I still think we did a great teamwork today we tried different stuff. He stayed out on the inter, I boxed I put the hard tires we got some good data. I think it was a very good day for for the whole team and and to come out with the three points could be very valuable at the end of the year.”

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Pierre Gasly believes the Canadian GP was much better than the dull race in Monaco

In the Monaco GP, Pierre Gasly was tagged by his own teammate, which cost him significant lap time. However, he had to trail in tenth place behind the same cars for a majority of the race and managed to score a single point. The Frenchman reckons that the Canadian race was much better in comparison to karting, in terms of finding the optimum grip line.

Describing his Canadian race, Gasly said:

“I could not even turn I was full lock and the car just even like first gear just not turning. But then I was trying to get to the dry bit, to get some grip. Looking back it was a lap too early. But you know is the sort of I knew I had to try it if I wanted to have a potential gain.

Then it was definitely worth the risk and after that, I actually managed to overtake a lot of cars I build up some temperature and managed to get by quite a lot of guys. So It was quite pleasant compared to you know last week you saw the same rear wing for the entire race. At least this weekend it felt like there was quite a lot of action and it was quite enjoyable.”

“I think there was a lot like in putting the wheels in the right place and sometimes you could see that there were different approach. It was very fun because it felt like karting days, where you know your line is not the ideal line sometimes you're all over the car. But then if it means you're outside tire is on the dry bit, then you get extra grip. So it was very fun like as the track was drying just trying to figure out where the best grip is and I think we did well in these conditions.”

Outperformed by his teammate for seven out of nine weekends, Pierre Gasly turned around his performance woes in Monaco. Securing a tenth place in Monaco and ninth place in Canada, he has scored three championship points so far. His teammate on the other hand has scored only two points.

Alpine are currently eighth in the championship and trailed closely by Williams and Sauber. The French manufacturer has had organisational issues and struggled to produce a car that is competitive, far from their form in previous years. In 2022, they had finished fourth in the championship whereas in 2023, they finished sixth.