Pierre Gasly visits the Alpine F1 team factory for the first time[F1-Gate.com]

Pierre Gasly visits the Alpine F1 team factory at Enstone. He entered the 2023 season, a major milestone in his F1 career.

2023 will be Pierre Gasly’s first time driving for a team not supported by Red Bull, ending a partnership that lasted nearly a decade.

Pierre Gasly, who made his Toro Rosso debut in 2017 and moved to Red Bull Racing in 2019, was demoted to Toro Rosso mid-season after being replaced by Alex Albon after a poor fit to the RB15.

Three more years with the sister team, renamed AlphaTauri in 2020, yielded results for Pierre Gasly, including a historic victory at the Italian Grand Prix.

A move to the Alpine F1 team in 2023 marks a new beginning for Pierre Gasly.

“Alpine has known me for many years and has always shown an interest in the past,” Gasly told RacingNews365.com.

“They knew me before I came to F1 and I’ve always had a connection with Groupe Renault.

Pierre Gasly will join the Alpine F1 team with Esteban Ocon who has very similar results in F1. Gasly and Ocon have raced roughly the same number of races, 108 and 111 respectively, both have won the same number of F1 races and hail from the Normandy region of France.

“Esteban is the man I’ve known the longest in the paddock. We met 20 years ago when we were six, so we have a long history,” said Gasly.

“I’d say he’s done a lot. We both want to get to Formula 1 and make one of our dreams come true and have a chance in this paddock to win and fight for the championship.”

When it was announced that Esteban Ocon would become Pierre Gasly’s teammate, it surprised many in the F1 paddock due to the feud dating back to his go-karting career.

The Alpine F1 team has already experienced a fair amount of team-mate clashes in 2022, nearly threatening fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship battle with McLaren.

However, Pierre Gasly explained that this has passed and that they have matured to respect each other professionally. He said he’s not worried about potential controversies.

“It’s no secret that we’ve had our ups and downs, but I think we’re a lot more mature today than we were before,” Gasly said.

“We have a responsibility to lead for manufacturers and we know it’s in our best interests to work together and work together to build faster cars.

“So I’m not sorry at all.

“So far so good. We’ve already had a few chats.”

Conversely, Esteban Ocon has shown during his time in F1 that relationships with drivers can be strained.

In addition to his relationship with Fenando Alonso ending throughout 2022, he clashed with Sergio Perez at Force India and played a friendly match at the 2017 Belgian Grand Prix.

Pierre Gasly explains the importance of having a healthy rivalry between teammates, alluding to the responsibility the two have at the helm of a great team of manufacturers.

“It’s the same as (Yuki) Tsunoda, (Daniil) Kvyat and Brendon (Hartley). I want to drive in F1 and win,” said Gasly.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a teammate or someone from another team. Ultimately, I’m doing it to do my best.”

“But I know it’s important for the team to work well together, so it has to be healthy competition between teammates.”

Category: F1 / Pierre Gutri / Alpine