Former F1 driver and British columnist Jolyon Palmer believes that Pierre Gasly’s significantly improved pace after switching to intermediates early on at the Monaco Grand Prix helped Red Bull make the call to pull Sergio Perez into the pit from third for the same tire compound. The team was eventually rewarded for this bold strategy with a race win for the Mexican.
Describing the situation on the BBC’s Checkered Flag podcast, Palmer said:
“I think what actually maybe gave Red Bull this win was [Pierre] Gasly was making progress in the AlphaTauri in a sort of perverse way. He showed you could overtake and it meant that everyone wanted to go for the Inters. Because Gasly pitted so early and, on the Inters, was way quicker than anyone else. So, immediately, everyone knows ‘OK, the Inters are quicker’. If Gasly had just been boxed in immediately by [Guanyu] Zhou, having been five seconds a lap quicker, and was then just stuck, then no one would have taken the Inters. But, because Gasly made progress, people wanted it, and they did it. Other drivers that put on Inters didn’t pass. Gasly made a couple of moves, and that was kind of it. [Sebastian] Vettel never made it past Zhou, you had [Lewis] Hamilton pitting and getting stuck behind [Esteban] Ocon and not making it through.”
Ironically, Pierre Gasly watched any remaining chance of his shot at a seat at Red Bull slip through his fingers as the team announced a contract extension with Sergio Perez for another 2 years just days after the race.
Pierre Gasly admits he had to “be creative” at the 2022 F1 Monaco Grand Prix
Pierre Gasly drove an impressive race in the first half of the 2022 F1 Monaco GP with brilliant overtaking on a track that is known to be unforgiving when it comes to the same.
As reported by Motorsport, the Frenchman admitted that he had to get creative and that it certainly paid off. He said:
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“It was pretty tight, but I was so much faster than these guys, I just needed to calm myself. I’d caught them so quickly, and then after you are like, OK, I want to pass, but it’s like if the guy is defending well, suddenly you’ve got no space on the right, no space on the left. Then you have to be creative. That’s what I tried to do. At the end of the day, F1 drivers, we are kind of artists, we need to always find new ideas. I tried to come up with unusual places to overtake, and that worked out, so I’m pleased with that.”
Despite his creativity, Gasly finished the race outside the points in the twelfth before being promoted to the eleventh after a penalty for Esteban Ocon.
