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Pierre Gasly was one of the casualties in the chaos that erupted in the final stages of the 2023 Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, April 2.
On the 55th lap, Kevin Magnussen's crash caused a second red flag of the day to be waved. This meant the drivers had a two-lap shootout, without the aid of DRS, to determine the final standings of the race.
While everyone's focus was understandably on the battle for victory and podium positions between Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, it was further down the grid where drama unfolded. In the end, a total of five drivers were involved in crashes, which led to another red flag and the race finishing behind a safety car.
Among them were Alpine drivers Gasly and Esteban Ocon, who crashed into each other and saw them register a DNF (Did Not Finish) instead of picking up valuable points. The former was especially gutted as he kept pace with the frontrunners throughout the race and was on course to finish P5.
Speaking after the race, Gasly expressed his disappointment at the outcome, saying (via Sport360):
"For now, I am extremely disappointed with the outcome of the race. I gave it everything out there and I was racing with the Ferrari and Alonso for majority of the race with three laps to go, and we didn't expect to be in such a position."
He added:
"Running in P5 on pace was definitely a nice surprise, but I can't believe what happened in the end. I don't want to comment on the end. We remember what happened before. I am just gutted to miss out on such a strong result."
Explaining what led to his collision with teammate Ocon, he said:
"I was pretty much on the gearbox of Carlos. And catching Fernando but at the end they picked up a bit more pace. All in all, I don't feel like we missed much to fight them. I had Fernando in my sight and thought we could pick up the pace."
Despite the bad result Down Under, the 27-year-old Frenchman sounded optimistic about the car's performance and hoped to make the most of it in the future. He stated:
"I felt comfortable in the car, and it will give the team a good direction on what we need to improve. Giving some extra motivation in the coming races that we can fight up there."
"I would ground one or both" - Alpine boss had warned Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly against causing damage to the team
Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly's crash in Melbourne comes a little over two weeks after Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi stated that both drivers haven't been shackled by the team and that they are free to race each other on the track.
Speaking on an episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast, Rossi acknowledged the drivers' instinctive desire to fight on the track while warning them against doing anything that would negatively impact the team.
He said:
"It is what separates them from us and they could be the most amicable persons off track, but on track when the visor is down, they just turn into like beasts. So you want to keep that. You don't want to curb that. That's why I've always said let them race."
He added:
"[But] if you make the team worse off. If one of you is in the ditch and we don't finish and we don't have as many points as we could have because the car has the potential, then that means you have behaved like kids. I'll treat you like kids. I would basically ground one of you or the both of you and I will do it, I think, and sue my back."
