Sophie Collins
Pierre Gasly admitted the AlphaTauri is having issues performing in colder conditions after Friday’s two Practice sessions.
The Frenchman topped the timesheets in FP1, as warmer conditions prove to be favoured by the new car, and says the team has a lot to work on ahead of Qualifying.
They now just have a matter of hours before they hit the track for the first Qualifying of the season, and as it takes place in the evening temperatures the team will need to pull something out of the bag for the struggling AT03.
Speaking on Friday evening, Gasly said: “We’ve had two very different sessions today; we topped the timings in FP1 and then in the second session we were P13, so two very contrasting outcomes.
“I think purely for us the hotter track conditions helped, the car really seemed to click, but tonight we struggled massively in the cold.
“We need to look through everything and understand what happened, especially as Qualifying and the race are both at night here in Bahrain.
“I think our long run pace was slightly better than the shorter runs, but still we’ve got a lot of work to do to fully understand our performance in these conditions.”