Formula 1 had another notable accident this Friday at the Belgian GP, when Pierre Gasly caused a red flag at the end of FP2 in Spa-Francorchamps. The Alpine driver lost control of the car at the Fagnes chicane and ended up suffering a heavy impact against the safety barrier.
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Even with significant damage to the car, the Frenchman emerged unscathed and showed confidence for the rest of the weekend. The team’s goal now is to rebuild the car in time for Saturday’s activities and aim for a spot in the top ten on the grid.
Gasly explained that it all started with a sudden loss of the rear of the car in the second part of the chicane: “I need to understand what happened in FP2. I had a big slide and lost the car,” he said.
According to the Alpine driver, the recovery took longer than expected, which made it inevitable to go off into the gravel trap: “It was a huge slide, and when I managed to partially regain control, I was already off the track and couldn’t get back. It wasn’t the end of the day we wanted, but I’m sure the mechanics will have everything ready for tomorrow,” he added.
The accident caused significant damage to the car, with the rear wing and the right rear tire being torn off the chassis. Gasly ended Friday in 18th position, eleven places behind his teammate, Franco Colapinto, who finished FP2 in seventh.
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Steve Nielsen, Alpine’s managing director, also commented on the incident and described the mistake as something small but severely punished by Spa’s characteristics: “I think he had a small slide at turn 14, which put him on the curb and then into the wall. At many circuits, this wouldn’t have consequences, but here you are punished at certain points,” he said.
Despite the setback, Gasly highlighted the positive aspects of the work done by the team throughout the day. Alpine used FP1 and FP2 to evaluate different setups on both cars and collect data to define the best direction for the rest of the event.
“It was a productive day of testing, with many different paths being tried on both cars. Now we need to evaluate what worked best and put everything together for tomorrow,” concluded the French driver, maintaining optimism for the qualifying session on Saturday.
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