How a "supernatural" adaption resurrected Gasly's F1 career

"Oh my god! We just won the race!"

Pierre Gasly screamed, thanked the team, and at one point seemed like he was about to break into tears. But instead of congratulations over the radio, what he heard were numbers. "Eighty-four!" the voice repeated insistently. "Fail eighty-four. You did eighty-two. Fail eighty-four now, please."

The voice belonged to another Pierre, Pierre Hamelin - Gasly's race engineer at AlphaTauri, trying to correct the only mistake his driver made that afternoon.

"It's something that I feel a bit frustrated about," laughs Hamelin as he tells GP Racing his side of the story of Gasly's emotional in-lap at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza.

"Basically, on the in-lap we've got to do the switches, just for reliability. It's really important. Until the car is switched off, you really have to stay on it. I called to do a switch, but in the heat of the moment he did another one, and the switch he did was quite bad for the car.

I really wanted to be happy and have a lot of nice messages to him. But it was a bit critical, because it could have potentially damaged a few pieces on the gearbox..."

But it was all perfect for Pierre Gasly that day at Monza. The team had his back.

Full support

"Obviously I dreamed about it," says Gasly himself, reflecting on that momentous weekend in Italy, where he scored his maiden F1 victory, and the first for his team since Sebastian Vettel in 2008. "When you cross the line, putting the car in front of the P1 board, the celebrations with the team, going to the podium. I knew this would come one day - I knew I would get my chance - I just didn't expect it to come that early, and especially in that situation with AlphaTauri.

"I think the last time a midfield team won was 2012. Usually we know pretty much who's gonna win the race, it never really changes, so even though you always try every weekend to do your best, you know it's not something that happens every season, or even every five years. I think it made the win even more enjoyable."

"Obviously when Dany came back from Red Bull, maybe Dany was a bit more affected personally. While Pierre, to me he had the approach of... now he just wants to prove again what he's capable of" Pierre Hamelin

Not many will disagree that, since his return to the Faenza squad last year, Gasly has been transformed - and he readily admits that the team played a major role in that transformation.

"They were super good," Gasly says. "We share the same mentality and never take anything for granted. They have a good understanding of what I need and always give me chances to perform. I appreciate that they give 100% of themselves for my own performance, which is what you need in a team sport, because at the end, what they do impacts my performance. They know it and take it really seriously. The more time we spend together, the more we understand, and the better the working relationship."

The first meeting

Taking in a driver dropped by Red Bull is nothing new for this team. In 2016, it was Hamelin's crew that received Daniil Kvyat, who had yielded his seat in the main squad to Max Verstappen. Hamelin worked with the Russian for a year and a half - right up to the moment when Kvyat was replaced by Gasly at Toro Rosso. Yet, in a twist of fate due to the birth of his child, Hamelin was not present when Gasly made his F1 debut at the 2017 Malaysian GP - and once he came back, Gasly had been assigned to the other side of the garage, which was Carlos Sainz's former crew.

In the end, they'd get the chance to work together after all - almost two years later when Gasly, like Kvyat before him, was demoted to Toro Rosso. And maybe what helped Gasly come to terms with this faster was that the team was better prepared for such a scenario. After all, he was surrounded by the very people who had just gone through something similar with Kvyat.

"I think also, you know, Pierre's physio, Pyry [Salmela], used to be Dany's physio, when Dany came back to us," points out Hamelin. "He also went through that phase once before, and I think it helped Pierre, to have someone around him who kind of knew already maybe what to expect.

"Obviously when Dany came back from Red Bull, maybe Dany was a bit more affected personally. While Pierre, to me he had the approach of... now he just wants to prove again what he's capable of. I never saw him being sad or disappointed. He was really pushing and wanted to move forward. When he came back, he was really professional."

First race back

The team, as Hamelin recalls, chose the same approach: keep things professional.

"It was very unusual", Hamelin says when asked about the circumstances in which he began working with Gasly at Spa last year. "What we did was... basically we tried not to bring it up. We tried not to talk to him about his personal feelings. We tried to keep it really professional.

"It's quite difficult to know how to handle this. Obviously, a sportsperson, psychologically, you don't really know how they can react. The approach was try to keep it always professional, talk about all engineering things first. Then, when Pierre felt he wanted to talk to us about the whole situation, we had a good discussion about it."

"Brazil for me is maybe even better than Monza in the sense we were there all the time. We started P7 and we were holding that position from the start. We were the top of the midfield, always" Pierre Hamelin

In his first race after returning to the team, Gasly finished ninth. "For me, obviously, it was really important," Gasly says of that result. "It was mentally a tough moment. Even if I know myself I'm mentally strong. I got quite a lot of shit from people that didn't know, talking without knowing the situation. That felt really unfair. If there's one thing that I don't like, it's unfair things in general in life. So, for me, it was important to just put things into the right context.

"I knew it would work out fine. It was just a matter of time and how fast I could adapt to the car. And getting the best out of my team and the people around me. I really wanted to do well. Because I had to also prove my points. I think it was the best way to show... OK, three weeks later, you know, I haven't changed anything. Still the same guy. When everybody thinks I'm going to be nowhere. I'm not that type of guy. I fight for what I want. And I'm not the kind of guy to give up. If anything, I fight even harder."

"Like he never left"

Gasly needed little time to find his feet back at Toro Rosso - despite having had to switch to an entirely new car mid-season. Hamelin says a combination of knowing the team, and using the same Honda engine and systems as Red Bull, helped Gasly's adaptation - but still Hamelin feels the adjustment his driver made was "supernatural, like he never left really".

"He's a really hard worker; always asking lots of questions. Honestly, we didn't have to do anything special, he was just straight on it."

In his third race back with Toro Rosso, Gasly surpassed the expectations of his 'new' team by finishing eighth in Singapore. Then came that astonishing podium in Brazil...

"Brazil for me is maybe even better than Monza in the sense we were there all the time," reflects Hamelin. "We started P7 and we were holding that position from the start. We were the top of the midfield, always. It was strong qualy, strong race, good pace. We made good decisions in terms of what to do with switches and stuff to be able to beat [Lewis] Hamilton to the line. We really got what we deserved.

"And for the whole team it was a fantastic feeling. Because if you want to give a podium to someone in the pitlane it's really Pierre, because he is such a nice guy. He's been through tough times, and tried to come back strong. It's kind of a reward for all his hard work. He proved what he can do, and he really deserved that position."

Lessons learned

Once the demotion didn't kill him, it could only make Gasly stronger. "To be honest, I never doubted myself," he says. "I think it's more the fact everybody was saying 'ah, OK he might, like Dany, completely lose it'. But I am not that kind of guy, and I knew that would be fine. I didn't change my driving. I didn't change my approach. I am pushing myself the same way, because I am a competitive guy."

But there has still been a period of gradual adjustment for Gasly. Eliminating the ghosts of that troubled half-season at Red Bull was never going to be the work of a moment.

"No, I don't think I was broken at all. It just gave me even more strength. And then yeah, I must say, after that I'm also surrounded by the right people in AlphaTauri, that also give me my chances to perform at my best" Pierre Gasly

"When we started the winter test this year, it was quite strange... Maybe there were a few memories from the winter tests before with Red Bull," reveals Hamelin. "He crashed in Barcelona back then and it was a difficult period for him.

"So, this time during the winter test with us I felt... How can I say it? He was a bit conservative in the way he was driving and how he was approaching things. Because he really wanted to do well. But then, when racing came, he took a step up and went back into the rhythm of pushing all the time."

The right environment

Gasly's resilience has been remarkable. Since returning to Toro Rosso he has consistently outperformed and outscored team-mate Kvyat, so surely there must be something about Faenza that suits Gasly in particular? Hamelin reckons AlphaTauri's technical transparency and patience with drivers (the legacy of being a proving ground for youngsters) has helped Gasly feel more in control.

"I'm still the same," adds Gasly, who refuses to publicly disclose the precise reasons for his early Red Bull departure. "Obviously it was a difficult situation. But I've seen some difficulties also at a younger age, whether it was in karting, or younger formulas, or in my personal life.

"And, you know, for me, it [the demotion] hasn't been a massive setback. If anything, what happened last year gave me even more strength and energy to bounce back and show that things were not really right for some reasons at that time.

"No, I don't think I was broken at all. It just gave me even more strength. And then yeah, I must say, after that I'm also surrounded by the right people in AlphaTauri, that also give me my chances to perform at my best.

"I have always positive energy. I think you should get rid of all the negative energy, the negative people around you, that are always not helping to push you higher. I think it applies to every environment you work in, whether it's in business, or in sport, or personal life, or personal relationship."

This sounds like the influence of a certain Lewis Hamilton, from whom Gasly sought advice when he was at a low ebb. Pierre has bounced back superbly since being dropped by Red Bull and has been retained by AlphaTauri for 2021. As Hamelin says, Gasly has proved to the outside world that he belongs in F1, even before that incredible Sunday afternoon at Monza.

"If you're in the office with him, I think you'll definitely see that he's not changed," says Hamelin. "I'm sure he was the same at Red Bull, he was the same with us. What had to change is the perception of others towards him. And how to do that? It's to be very robust and always there. And I think he achieved this."