Gasly

THE REPORT

Gasly's technical signature is late-braking commitment at slow-speed hairpins and chicanes — a technique that served him well in AlphaTauri machinery that was competitive in the braking and straight-line sectors even when lacking aerodynamic downforce elsewhere. His entry to heavy-braking corners is characterised by a relatively late turn-in point and a long trail-brake phase, which generates rotation through pedal release rather than through aggressive initial steering input. Monza 2020 exploited exactly this: a circuit where late braking in the chicanes is the primary lap-time mechanism, where AlphaTauri's drag-optimised package was minimally penalised, and where Hamilton's pit lane infringement created the gap Gasly converted.

His Red Bull demotion in 2019 revealed a specific incompatibility: the RB15 preferred a more conservative entry in slow corners to protect rear stability, and Gasly's natural late-entry technique caused a chain reaction from rear axle overload through the rotation phase. Returned to AlphaTauri, the car's different characteristics — more compliant under braking — re-matched his inputs. His subsequent seasons showed consistent points extraction from machinery the pace data placed 0.5–1.0 seconds off the top teams.

At Alpine from 2023, the trajectory levelled rather than accelerated. His Dutch GP 2023 podium and São Paulo 2024 result both arrived under conditions where safety cars and strategy variance elevated the Alpine above its pure-pace position. As a race winner and experienced front-runner, Gasly extracts the last 5% from a mid-field car when circumstances align — but the machinery has not, since 2020, given him the conditions for a sustained challenge.