Toro Rosso driver, Pierre Gasly has said that the midfield battles this season are generating a lot of “excitement” for him.

Although the top three teams are a long way clear of the rest of the grid, the midfield is tightly packed, with a few tenths the difference between seventh and 15th in qualifying.

The racing in the midfield has also been very close, with great racing all the way down the field, and Gasly has said that it has created a lot of excitement for him.

“I do enjoy these tight battles because at the end of the day I love racing and that’s what you get when you’re right there, like six to eight cars within three or four tenths.” Gasly said in Thursday’s press conference at Austin.

“It brings a lot of excitement to the track on my side actually.”

But, although Gasly has been enjoying the battles between his midfield rivals, coming out on top doesn’t have the same feeling as a victory, even though he knows getting on to the podium is not realistic for anyone other than a Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull driver, and he hopes that situation will change when the new regulations are introduced in 2021.

“Knowing that the best you can achieve is seventh is always a bit disappointing sometimes,” he added.

“When you finish seventh, that’s kind of the first place you can target; you don’t get any trophy, you don’t get any champagne, it doesn’t really taste the same.

“Hopefully this can be improved for 2021.

“Of course I think we have all the common targets with F1 and that’s what all the driver wants so yeah, hopefully it’s going to be achieved by 2021.”

Racing Point driver Lance Stroll agreed with Gasly’s comments and added that while the racing is closer than ever further down the grid, they are still too far behind the top three teams.

“’Ive loved the midfield competition this year. I think it’s been tighter than it’s ever been.” commented Stroll.

“You look at the gaps on Saturdays and then on the Sunday how close the racing is, it’s great for the drivers, for the fans.

“Unfortunately we are [still] getting lapped by Mercedes and Ferraris, even Red Bulls, so hopefully that can change in ’21.

“I agree with what Pierre said: it’s great to fight for the best of the rest but when you’re seventh and there’s no reward for that.

“We’re always trying to score World Championship points but the podium is realistically out of reach and victories are out of the question in today’s sport.

“That is the priority, I think, with the regulation changes this year, capable of following cars nose to tail but then on top of that, if we can see the gaps reduced to the top teams the opportunity to fight for podiums and wins potentially – that would be awesome.”