Edd Straw has said that Pierre Gasly is now on the opposite end of what happened to him in 2019, and is the aggressor in Yuki Tsunoda’s situation.
Gasly had a Red Bull stint to forget, when he was dropped after having less than a season to prove himself. Being thoroughly outmatched by Max Verstappen led to Red Bull demoting him to AlphaTauri.
Fast forward to 2021, and Gasly has become a much better driver. By contrast, his teammate Tsunoda is being criticised for the same reasons Gasly was two years ago.
In his opinion article for the Race, Straw said that Gasly is the hunter as compared to 2019, when he was the hunted.
“Based on his committed driving in pre-season testing and the first race weekend of the season in Bahrain, the last problem you would have expected Yuki Tsunoda to struggle with during his rookie Formula 1 season was a lack of confidence,” he wrote.
“But the recent Turkish Grand Prix weekend laid bare his problem and highlighted how Tsunoda is to AlphaTauri team-mate Pierre Gasly what Gasly himself was when up against Max Verstappen at Red Bull for the first half of 2019.
“Tsunoda is further off Gasly in qualifying, with an average deficit in dry conditions of 0.570% compared to Gasly’s 2019 gap of 0.456%, while his return of 24% of Gasly’s points is worse than the 2019 comparison of 35%.
“But at heart their problem is similar in that neither proved able to adapt to the dynamic demands of a car that their team-mates could get the best out of.
A tale of two drivers
Straw used the Turkish GP as an example to highlight his point, and explained the approach of the two drivers this season.
“Turkey showcased this very effectively,” he continued.
“While Tsunoda did reach Q3, albeit as the only driver to use soft Pirellis to do so, he complained after qualifying that ‘the pace was completely different’ and that ‘I felt straight away that I didn’t feel a similar feeling’ compared to Friday’s practice running.
“Gasly, by contrast, said ‘we made a lot of change today and the car was much more alive.’”
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