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Pierre Gasly has blamed Racing Bulls’ team tactics for an underwhelming Dutch Grand Prix result, arguing that the decision to play the team game cost Alpine valuable track position in the constructors’ championship battle.
The Frenchman had shown strong pace at Zandvoort, qualifying and finishing eighth in the sprint as “best of the rest”. Although he started the main race 11th, a strong opening lap lifted him to eighth. That progress disappeared after his first pitstop, when he rejoined behind Arvid Lindblad.
Lindblad had already been removed from points contention by a drive-through penalty for a yellow-flag infringement, but his presence still became decisive. Gasly spent seven laps behind the Racing Bulls driver before attempting to pass around the outside of Turn 11. He locked up, allowing Nico Hulkenberg through, while Yuki Tsunoda closed in behind.
Hulkenberg quickly cleared Lindblad. Gasly, however, remained stuck, eventually losing another position to Tsunoda after the Racing Bulls driver set up an impressive move through the banked Turn 3 curve before completing it at Turn 7. Lindblad made it easy for his team-mate to pass, but Gasly needed 17 laps in total to get through.
The episode was particularly costly because Gasly had identified closing the Racing Bulls gap as a key Alpine objective before the weekend.
Gasly encountered Tsunoda again after his second pitstop and required a further 10 laps to overtake his former team-mate. He said the Racing Bulls tactics had not improved the team’s own result, as Tsunoda and Lindblad finished 11th and 12th, but had cost him ninth place.
“VCARB ruined our race in the middle part of the race, played a team game for the championship and did it well,” Gasly said. “It just made me lose a position to Nico and Tsunoda and I don't know how many seconds of race time. Congrats to them, and I can't wait to race them.”
Gasly finished one second behind Fernando Alonso, having lost four seconds to the Aston Martin while trapped behind Lindblad despite having new tyres. The delay behind Tsunoda then prevented him from closing on Alonso’s one-stop strategy as quickly as possible.
Lindblad was unmoved when asked about Gasly’s comments, saying he had done what he could to help Racing Bulls after his own race was effectively over.
“We all fight as hard as we can every weekend,” Lindblad said. “I tried to help the team where I could.”
Racing Bulls now hold 66 points in the constructors’ championship, with Alpine up to 63. Gasly warned that the battle would look different at circuits where overtaking is easier, adding that he would remember the episode through the rest of the season.
He’s a software engineer with a deep passion for Formula 1 and motorsport. He co-founded Formula Live Pulse to make live telemetry and race insights accessible, visual, and easy to follow.