Distraught Gasly says AlphaTauri ‘threw away’ Singapore F1

The Frenchman ran comfortably in the top seven for the first half of the race, ahead of the critical switch to slicks that the teams had to make as the track dried out.

But the team went too early with their call, as the track wasn’t quite ready for dry tires, and that put Gasly down hard. As a result, he returned home on the 10th.

After the race, Gasly said he didn’t understand why Alpha Tauri decided to put the switch time at risk, especially since the teams that stopped later got a lot more.

Speaking after the finish, Gasly said: “I think we didn’t do a good job. We were seventh, ahead of the two Aston Martins, with track position. We had everything in our hands and we threw it away because we decided the box too early.

“There was no communication and dialogue, and I don’t quite understand why. We took a gamble when we didn’t need to. So we were pitting, everyone was off track and we got cut off four times by cars.”

Gasly says the end result, with late stoppers like Sebastian Vettel, Lance Stroll and McLaren’s Daniel Ricardo getting a lot was incredibly hard to take as it opened the door for Aston Martin to overtake their team in the Constructors’ Championship.

“Obviously I’m very disappointed with the whole team and all of us because we’re down to ninth in the team championship,” he said.

“Daniel was behind us, far behind, [but] stayed out of the way as they should have and took P5.

“It’s nine points we’ve lost and nine important points. So yeah, I’m just sad. And not satisfied with our game.”

Gasly said that if the team had asked him about track conditions at the time of the stops, he would have advised them to stay away.

“It was too soon,” he said. “I don’t understand why we did it. I haven’t spoken to them and obviously that’s something we’ll look into.

“They have reasons for it, but at least we should have communicated, and we didn’t.

“In the position we were in, you are ahead of your two main rivals, you have track position in Singapore, you have dry conditions and you know the warm-up will be difficult… I don’t see the point in taking a risk like that. And we just gave our position.”

AlphaTauri’s disappointment with the Singapore result was compounded Yuki Tsunoda after entering the track on slippery tires and lost control in a wet section.