GP Silverstone - Pierre's Debrief

The tenth round of the 2021 world championship took place this weekend in Sivertsone, United Kingdom. It was the first opportunity for Formula 1 to test the new weekend format with a Sprint race on Saturday afternoon, the order of finish of which determines the starting grid for the Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon.

The only free practice session allowing different settings to be tested on the car took place on Friday morning. Pierre's Alpha Tauri showed behavior that was a little more complicated to control than in previous GPs and the overall performance suggested that it was going to be a challenge to get into the top 10 in each session.

Pierre qualified 12th on the grid for the Sprint race during the Friday qualifying session. (Best laps: (Q1) 1:27.600, (Q2) 1:27.273, pos 12th).

Pierre: “Since FP1 we have struggled with the balance of the car, clearly more than usual. We made changes for Qualifications, but it was not enough. I was happy with my lap during Q2 but when I crossed the line I already suspected that it wouldn't be enough. It was just very tight today. It's going to be a complicated weekend as we can no longer make any changes to the car. We just have FP2 left to understand a little better how the tires work before the Sprint race tomorrow afternoon and the Grand Prix on Sunday. But we will fight, as always. It’s a different weekend format and a lot of choices can happen.”

Saturday goes as planned. A Sprint race spent on medium tires like most other cars. The overall performance did not allow travel. In the end, Pierre nevertheless gained a place on the starting grid for Sunday thanks to Perez's exit from the track and Russell's penalty.

Pierre: “I'm quite frustrated tonight, today we just weren't where we should be. We started badly this weekend in FP1 and we simply couldn't react after Friday afternoon. It's very disappointing because we know that the car has a lot more potential than that, and we weren't able to get it working in a single free practice session. We will analyze the data this evening and try to do everything we can to come back during the race and score points. 

In everyone's opinion, Pierre had a very solid race on Sunday. He notably climbed back into the points thanks to a very quick end to the first run (on a medium tire) once clear of traffic. This allowed him to move ahead of direct competitors like Esteban Ocon.

At the end of the race, then Pierre came back on Alonso and Stroll for 7th or 8th position, one of these two drivers went wide, put the wheels off the track and brought gravel onto it which Pierre could not avoid. This cuts his tire and forces him to make a final pit stop, dropping him to 14th place. After a few final overtakes, Pierre finished just outside the points, a frustrating 11th place.

Pierre: “I honestly have no words. We were in the points until five laps from the end when a tire blew and I had to stop in the box. It's very frustrating to leave without points after today's race. There are still positives to take away, after a fairly difficult weekend, the pace in the middle of the race was very good and this allowed us to gain places. We obviously want to continue to fight for better positions and so we will work hard to understand what went wrong with the car this weekend and arrive more competitive in Hungary in 2 weeks.”