Why F1's midfield over-achiever still has more to do at AlphaTauri

Pause. A long one. Then Pierre Gasly breaks the silence with his best impression of a tired horse, blowing air through closed lips.

“Pfffft. It’s... to be honest, not something I want to think about,” he tells GP Racing. “You know, at the end of the day I just do my job…”

The question was simple and obvious, though: does he think he’s done enough to convince the Red Bull bosses during the past two and half years that he deserves another chance? Of course he does. He’s just fed up with talking about it.

“Yeah, I obviously want to be in a race-winning car,” he says. “They’ve got one. And then yeah, we’ll see, if we... what we do. But I don’t want to go into that thing. Every single week we discuss [that], OK, Red Bull and myself and blah, blah, blah, all these things.

“There will be conversations, there will be talks and then, yeah, we’ll see from there what we do.”

In the end, when it comes to a potential Red Bull return, it’s not Gasly’s opinion that’s the most important. And it seems like the bosses of his former team have a different view on who should be Max Verstappen’s team-mate. Whatever the results.

Gasly responded well to being dropped by Red Bull in 2019, taking his first podium for Toro Rosso in Brazil behind winner Verstappen

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Gasly’s first podium in Brazil happened just three and a half months after his demotion, midway through 2019, to the team then known as Toro Rosso. But Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and ‘driver advisor’ Helmut Marko still decided that Alex Albon would get the nod alongside Verstappen for 2020 – even though Albon’s results at Red Bull didn’t differ all that much from Gasly’s.

His Monza win was one of the highlights of 2020, but that didn’t change Marko’s and Horner’s minds either. That Gasly would be kept at Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri was officially announced a month and a half later, after a Portugal race in which Gasly finished fifth and closed to within one point of Albon in the standings. And when Albon himself was dropped at the end of the year, Red Bull opted to sign Sergio Perez, its first F1 signing outside of its driver programme since taking Mark Webber from Williams for 2007.

The Mexican’s contract was extended immediately after the summer break last year, amid a disastrous spell in which Perez only managed four points in four races. This was followed by Gasly’s outburst in a Canal Plus interview: “At Zandvoort he [Perez] got knocked out in Q1 and finished eighth and a lap behind his team-mate and he was voted best driver of the grand prix. It’s true that, when you see some of the performances, there are some things that we do not really understand.

"I think I feel ready, I’m in the best form of my career and I keep working, I keep pushing every single time and always keeping in mind how to do even better every single year" Pierre Gasly

“But I’m not the one who makes the decisions. It’s sad and a little frustrating on the one hand, but on the other hand that’s how it is. There are things that are beyond my power.”

Red Bull and Perez’s bromance was strengthened in Abu Dhabi, when he was credited with a significant role in helping Verstappen secure the title. In truth, though Perez’s robust tactics caused Hamilton to lose around seven seconds, Verstappen would still have been in Hamilton’s pit window anyway.

Perhaps, in addition to his experience, the Mexican’s willingness to accept a number two role and sacrifice his own race to benefit the team leader is what’s valued most by Red Bull. Who knows whether Gasly, if given another chance, wouldn’t try to beat Verstappen at all costs?

“I’m ready for a top seat,” says Gasly. “But obviously it’s Formula 1, you’ve always got to deliver and that’s the only thing that I’ll focus on.

Gasly believes he's ready for another shot at Red Bull, but the team favours Perez in its second seat for now

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“Obviously for this season everything is sorted, so there is no real point to keep thinking about it. But yeah, I think I feel ready, I’m in the best form of my career and I keep working, I keep pushing every single time and I'm always keeping in mind how to do even better every single year.

“But, ultimately, I think last year we showed… we were the first one after the top four teams, and it was a very good year with the car that we had.

“I feel good. I mean, I feel better than any other year. We’re coming from a super-strong 2021 with the team. Great work, very good consistency, we showed really good performance.”

Gasly’s results last year were remarkable indeed. He scored 110 points, and finished the season behind only Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren drivers in the standings. He was even more impressive in qualifying, making the top six on Saturday on 16 occasions. Perez’s experience may be a factor for Red Bull, but Gasly isn’t a junior driver any more either. He’s set to take part in his 100th grand prix in August, at Spa.

“Objectively, I think it’s a sport where you…” Gasly pauses again, trying to conjure a good analogy.

“I kind of see myself like a good, very good red wine that keeps getting better year after year,” he laughs. “I think it’s a sport where you don’t practice a lot, if you compare with basketball, tennis, football. These guys practice every single day.

“So, I think experience does make a pretty big difference in the sport, race after race facing challenging situations, a couple of problems, trying to find solutions, how to make the best out of every situation. I think this just makes you more complete as a driver. The past few years have been really good, but I’m really confident that [I will] be able to show even better things in the future.”

Gasly believes he's getting better each year, with his experience aiding AlphaTauri in its development

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Gasly is the poster boy for AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost’s theory that a driver needs to spend at least three years in F1 before he can show his real worth.

“That’s the typical example, yes,” Tost tells GP Racing. “We all know his history. You know, after one year they took him to Red Bull and this was too early. Then he came back to us.

“And he recovered fast, then he was very successful. And I hope that he can continue this. I’m convinced that he can do this, if the team provides [him] with a good car.

"I would really like to bring this team the fifth place in the team championship. It will personally mean a lot to be able to do it" Pierre Gasly

“It was a continuous improvement. In Formula 1 it’s rarely one click, it’s always that the driver improves in all the different areas, in understanding the car, understanding the technique, understanding the team, understanding the competitors, and understanding the tyres.

“All these factors are very important for the performance, and you can only improve the performance if you understand all these different topics. And Pierre is doing this in a very good way.”

Gasly has already stood on the podium in AlphaTauri colours, won a race for the team – perhaps only a pole is missing, but the chances of the Faenza team building a pole-capable car any time soon are low.

Does he still have targets with AlphaTauri? After all, whatever happens, Gasly is contractually tied to Red Bull until the end of 2023, and is seemingly destined to stay at Faenza at least until this deal expires.

“Ah, I would really like to bring this team the fifth place in the team championship,” Gasly says. “It will personally mean a lot to be able to do it. I think last year we had the opportunity and the chance, but we missed by a few points. Hopefully this year, you know, also Yuki [Tsunoda] is now a bit more experienced, I think we can be a pretty strong line-up, but ultimately the car is gonna make the difference.”

Gasly is intent on leading AlphaTauri to a top-five finish in the constructors' championship

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Whatever the case, Gasly now is the team’s main asset. He’s rapid but also experienced, something Tost values even more. In the history of F1’s second Red Bull team, there has only been one driver with a similar level of experience, Daniil Kvyat, also someone demoted from Red Bull. But the Russian, unlike Gasly, never did become a team leader there.

“Daniil was maybe a little bit more aggressive to himself, or let me say it in this way, a little bit more upset,” says Tost. “He wanted to show immediately that this movement [from Red Bull back to Toro Rosso] is unjustified. Pierre accepted it more and then was more concentrated on the sportive side. Of course, he was disappointed. But, at the end, he accepted and he got the best out of this situation.”

Naturally Tost wants to retain Gasly’s services for AlphaTauri, even though it’s rare for a driver to occupy a seat at Red Bull’s junior team for more than three seasons.

“It’s very important, because he is the leader of the team,” Tost says. “It’s also important for Yuki, because Yuki can learn a lot from Pierre. And therefore, for us, it’s important we can keep him.”

Helmut Marko also likes the idea of keeping Gasly at AlphaTauri. A “slightly fashionable Frenchman”, as he once put it, is an “ideal ambassador” for the clothing brand that gives the team its name. And it’s difficult to argue with this assessment.

Gasly himself would perhaps be happy to trade being “fashionable” for a chance to drive for the top team again. But that’s just part of the Gasly package – as are those nightmarish six months with Red Bull, without which his career would’ve looked completely different.

“When I came, it was everything amazing,” he says. “Then in six months everybody is questioning everything, that all of a sudden you forget how to drive. And then six months later I’m getting a podium with an AlphaTauri [which was Toro Rosso at the time].

Tost is keen to keep Gasly, should a route back to Red Bull not open up

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

“For sure, there was a big hit, you know, when I was in Red Bull, which damaged a lot and took a lot of time to kind of rebuild the image and get the credits for what I’ve achieved after that.

“Yeah, now probably sometimes people underestimate how hard it is in the midfield car to always make an impression. You know, I fought against Ferrari, who had probably three times the budget that we had last year, teams like McLaren with a lot of experience. So I understand that for people it’s not always easy to realise all these differences.

“Long-term I believe I know what I can achieve in this sport, I know what I want to achieve. It’s all a question of time, and I’m focusing on my mission to achieve my goal.

"Staying here for the next 10 years, that’s the minimum I want to do. There’s a lot to achieve. I think it’s been great [so far], especially the past three years. But I know the best part is yet to come" Pierre Gasly

“To me every single day is an opportunity to show something. I know, every single day I want to be the best Pierre I can. It’s not only on one special event or one specific session. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be excellent every single time I’m out there and whether it’s on or off the track. And that’s my mentality.”

The aforementioned Perez has had a career that can serve as a reference point for Gasly. After an all-around weak season with McLaren in 2013, Checo spent seven years at Force India/Racing Point – where his ability to take whatever points the car’s performance put on the table did ultimately give him a path back to a top team.

“Honestly, every story is different,” says Gasly when offered up this comparison, “and I’m not really looking at anyone else. I’m just looking at myself. And telling myself I’m doing everything that I can that I’ve got in my hands to make the best out of this career in F1.

“I’m still young, I’m only 26. Obviously I’ve seen a lot in F1 already. But, yeah, staying here for the next 10 years, that’s the minimum I want to do. There’s a lot to achieve. I think it’s been great [so far], especially the past three years. But I know the best part is yet to come.”

Who knows, maybe the Red Bull bosses also see Gasly through similar optics – and are just waiting until there’s a little bit more dust on that bottle of fine red wine before they take it off the shelf?

Gasly is confident that there is much more to come from himself and AlphaTauri in the years ahead

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images