"Hopefully, we’ll have a surprise like Brawn GP" - Pierre Gasly optimistic for F1 2022 season

Pierre Gasly is hoping for a "Brawn GP-like" surprise in the 2022 F1 season. The Frenchman is hopeful of new regulation changes leading to dramatic gains for his team, Alpha Tauri.

Brawn GP was a constructor who entered the sport in 2009, taking over Honda Racing F1. The team had a dramatically successful debut season, winning both the drivers' and constructors' trophies that year. Gasly is hoping that Alpha Tauri sees a similar fate in the 2022 season, which is riddled with regulation and car changes. Speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, he said:

“What I’ve seen of the car so far makes me feel positive. I’m looking forward to the tests in Barcelona. Hopefully, we’ll have a surprise like Brawn GP back then. For the team and for me. At the same time, it would be naive to say it’s just an opportunity for us. Anyone can take a big step forward. I’m aware of that. I know that anything can happen. For better or for worse.”

The Alpha Tauri driver then took the opportunity to acknowledge the lack of on-track data with 2022 cars, claiming it is hard to make claims without realistic data. He went on to say:

“In the simulator, you work with assumptions, what the engineers think the car will be like, how it will behave. It’s then up to the driver to give clear feedback. Where are the biggest limitations? Where could the most lap time be? That gives the engineers a direction to go for. But we’ll have to wait until the car is running in real life. Until then, it’s hard to estimate.”

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2021 Pierre Gasly's best season yet

Pierre Gasly has established himself as one of the most consistent drivers on the grid despite not having title-winning machinery. The 25-year-old inadvertently became a mentor to his team-mate and rookie Yuki Tsunoda, after the Japanese driver was found lacking on multiple occasions.

The Frenchman finished the season in ninth place in the drivers' standings with 110 points to his tally. Despite scoring only one podium in 2021 — at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix — Gasly proved himself to be the king of qualifying, putting his Alpha Tauri within the top six on 14 occasions.

The Frenchman has received compliments from experts such as Nico Rosberg, who claims Gasly is "really awesome" and deserves another shot at the main Red Bull team. Rosberg said:

“Pierre Gasly is really, really awesome, to the extent where you are surprised, they don’t take him back into the mother team, into Red Bull Racing. But you will never know if he’s able to perform under the pressure of Red Bull Racing. That’s the big question mark which is left, and that’s why they didn’t put him back in.”

Pierre Gasly is set to return with Alpha Tauri in 2022, where he will be keen to prove that he is worthy of joining the mother team.