‘Team Gambled on the Rain’ – Pierre Gasly

Toro Rosso Honda driver Pierre Gasly was one of the few drivers to dive into the pit lane when the heavens opened. However, while most of the drivers fitted intermediate tyres, the Toro Rosso team opted for full wets. It certainly was odd, considering that the shower was fairly light. The Frenchman soon regretted it as he struggled to control the car.

In the end, after 3 torturous laps including an off in the gravel, he pitted for intermediates. He said, “The team gambled on the rain, but unfortunately, it didn’t come at the right time for us.”

“At that time they asked me my opinion,” Gasly said. “I told them the rain is still pretty light, and they asked me to pit, but I didn’t really expect them to put the wet.

“They put them on and then I was like ‘yeah, okay, let’s try’, they have the [weather] radar and I didn’t have it, of course you don’t have this information in the car.

“I was like ‘yeah, okay, probably it’s going to work out’ and then I did three corners and I was like ‘okay, either it [the rain] comes now and then we have a chance, or we’re dead’.

“And then [I] stayed out for three laps. The tyres were completely overheating, it was impossible.”

The Frenchman was astounded was the sheer lack of grip. He said that there was less grip compared to the two litre Formula Renault cars. The 22-year old struggled to put the power down even on the straight.

He continued, “I think a couple of guys did also have a mistakes even with the inters. With the wet was really really tricky.”

However, Pierre Gasly believed that the strategy gamble was a risk worth taking. He had been running in 15th when the rain arrived.

“We were not in a really good position at the time,” he added. “They [Toro Rosso] were like, the gain if it works would have been much bigger than just trying to stick on the same strategy than the others.

“A pretty big gamble with a pretty low chance [of succeeding] – but when you are like 13th, 12th it doesn’t matter, 11th, it doesn’t matter.

“That’s why we tried it, hoping for more rain and score big points but at the end it didn’t work.”