AlꦿphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly believes his team is in a stronger position compared to the same time last year and says “there are good reasons to be excited” for the 2021 ꦺFormula 1 season. 

The Frenchman completed the most amount of laps of any driver during a solid pre-seaso♔n test in Bahrain, with Gasly lapping the Sakhir cir🦹cuit a total of 237 times in the team’s updated AT02 challenger which proved to be both reliable and fast.  

After claiming a shock win at last year’s Italian Grand Prix and helping AlphaTauri take seventh place in the 2020 constructors’ championship with its biggest-ever points haul, Gas🍒ly hopes the Faenza squad can justify the increased excitement around it when teams reveal their true pace at this weekend’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. 

“We have a good package,” he explained. “But I don't want to draw any quick conclusions because things will be very diffe☂rent [during the race weekend]. At the moment we are just looking at ourselves.

“We’re trying to work on the areas that we have to work on, becaus♒e this car, even if it seems to be quite good, there are still areas that we need to improve. 

“But I think there are good reasons to be excited, and I hope that we’ll be able to put in some strong performꦆances early on in the season, because it’s going to be important.

“To be honest, after three days, it’s a lot better ꦕthan where we were at the same time in Barcelona, after the same amount of time,” he continued. 

“I’m really happy; I think we know which opponents are going to be very fast as well, wꦆe already have some ideas… But I really hope we can be in the fight, and especially for some good points.”

Gasly and new AlphaTauri teammate Yuki ♐Tsunoda will also be boosted by an all-new Honda power unit for the upcomiꦏng campaign after the Japanese manufacturer fast-tracked the development of its planned 2022 engine before it bows out of F1 at the end of the year.

“So far, we’re really happy [with the engine],” Gasly added. “It’s a step forward compared to last year. Rel♏iability has been perfect all three days so far, so really positive on this side.

“But we saw Mercedes, they ha🌳ve a very strong engine. They showed it with McLaren and Williams, and you can see that they have a lot of potential.ဣ 

“I don’t🐈 want to get too excited before we get to qualifying [in Bahrain] and then I think we’ll get the full picture.”