RaceFans: "We don't know what happened": McManus on AlphaTauri's premature exit from Bahrain Grand Prix

( again, let's pretend the scenery matches the article and it's all screens the FIA put up or whatever )

ABOVE: In a press conference held in the aftermath of the Grand Prix, assistant AlphaTauri pit crew chief Dakota McManus defends her engineers following Pierre Gasly's fiery exit from the first race of the season.

Cade Yaeger

Staff Reporter

SAKHIR, BAHRAIN - The 2022 Formula One season officially kicked off this past weekend in Bahrain, and the results caused a shake-up in team standings.

Fan-favourites at RedBull were forced to retire following an engine failure that caused Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to abandon their cars within the final laps, and resulted in RedBull going into the second race with a whopping zero points.

Of course, RedBull were not the only team affected by these outages, attributed to the shared Honda equipment between RedBull and AlphaTauri after AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly was forced to jump ship after his car burst into flames during lap 46.

"At this point in time, we don't know what happened with Pierre's car." An agitated Dakota McManus remarks. As the team's assistant pit crew chief, she internalizes the failure. "Obviously that doesn't fly in this industry, and we need to spend the seven days between now and qualifying at Jeddah [Saudi Arabia] trying for figure out what went wrong so that we can remedy the issue, and ensure that issue is not also present with Yuki [Tsunoda}'s car."

McManus is still relatively new to her position at AlphaTauri, having held a management position for only one season prior, a surprise promotion from her status on the pit crew. It is possible that her inexperience is showing, and she is beginning to feel the pressure as her team underperforms.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, given the recent leak from McLaren Racing that seem to hint that they have interest in recruiting McManus for their own team.

There are seven days until the next race weekend in Jeddah, and we wish McManus nothing bu the best as she attempts to figure out exactly what happened in Sakhir.

TEXT MESSAGES BETWEEN FERNANDO ALONSO AND DAKOTA MCMANUS

Dakota

well that was a dumpster fire. i need a fucking drink

Padre Alonso

Funny enough, I was about to call you and make sure you were okay

Dakota

you can meet me for drinks then.

i need some advice.

and i sure as hell don't want to talk to guenther or franz about it

Padre Alonso

I take it the advice is about that possible McLaren contract I've been hearing about

Dakota

.....maybe

Padre Alonso

I can meet you in the hotel bar in 20 minutes if Franz doesn't need you?

Dakota

I'm just waiting for the car.

pierre isnt talking to anybody and yuki's gone. its not like eighth is bad but the knws he can do better. he went to call his parents and i havent seen him since

today's been hard on all of us.

Padre Alonso

I know, Kiddo.

TWITTER

i know i did not just hear the espn commentators blame the mechanical failure on dakota elaine queen of the paddock mcmanus ???

- President of the Lance Stroll Protection Squad ( user0987656789 )

dakota and the engineers better be about to throw hands with the fuckers at redbull who gave them shitty parts.

i'd pay big money to see her kick h*rners ass

- marnie <3 || merc or bust ( user2348765432 )

Keep your chin up, Kid. This one isn't your fault. 😬

- Romain Grosjean ( romaingrosjean )