In 2023, there will no longer be a French Grand Prix on the F1 calendar, but the Alpine team will be stamped 100% tricolor. As anticipated for several weeks, the driver Pierre Gasly has signed “for a few seasons” in favor of the Renault team. “I have been received by people who have a huge desire to work with me and it is mutualhe rejoices. They showed me how much they wanted to build the future with me. The fact that it’s French is special emotionally…”
At 26, the Norman joins another Norman of the same age, Esteban Ocon. His arrival compensates for the departure of former Spanish world champion Fernando Alonso, who decided in early August to join Aston Martin, upsetting Alpine’s plans. After the incredible refusal of its reserve driver, the Australian Oscar Piastri, to take over despite an initial announcement to that effect from the French brand, another solution had to be found. And the marriage between Gasly and Alpine seemed obvious.
On the one hand, the team offers itself one of the most successful and promising drivers on the field, whom it knows is immediately capable of scoring points. On the other hand, the driver leaves a less efficient team, Alpha Tauri, for one of a better caliber. If the 2021 season had been good for Pierre Gasly – 9e in the drivers’ standings, a podium and 110 points scored – his single-seater is much less competitive this season. Five races from the end and before the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday October 9, he has scored only 23 points and is only 13e place in the championship, often betrayed by reliability problems.
No more time to wait
But leaving Alpha Tauri was not such an easy decision to make, as it meant leaving the Red Bull group. The Italian team is indeed owned by the Austrian giant, whose team has Dutch world champion Max Verstappen in its ranks, is heading for a constructor’s title in 2022 and currently dominates F1. “It’s a real career choice and a hugely exciting transition, I’m closing a nine-year chapter with Red Bullsummarizes Gasly. It has been a long relationship with all my successes in the lower categories, these five years in F1 with the podiums and my victory [au Grand Prix d’Italie en septembre 2020]. »
Since his debut in Formula 1, in September 2017, within the modest Toro Rosso, Pierre Gasly has gone through ups and downs, like his only success at Monza, his promotion to Red Bull in 2019 and finally of his demotion the following season. Blocked by the very probable future double world champion – Verstappen could be crowned this weekend in Japan – and by the extension of his teammate Sergio Perez (a two-year contract until 2024), the young Frenchman had no time to wait for another chance.
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