Why Red Bull freedom and an Alpine switch can define Gasly's F1 career

Pierre Gasly will forever be known as the winner of the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. It was that against-the-odds victory which made him the front-cover star of his home nation’s revered L’Equipe magazine. It’s the epithet used every time he is welcomed on stage or introduced in writing. Ultimately, it’s how he will be remembered. But not necessarily how his Formula 1 career shall be judged. That, instead, will more likely be derived from his tenure at Alpine.

A switch comes despite Gasly being signed to AlphaTauri for 2023. However, then the most hectic driver market silly season of recent times whirred into life. Sebastian Vettel dropped his retirement bombshell that took Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin and meant Daniel Ricciardo was paid off so McLaren could lock in Oscar Piastri - once the Contract Recognition Board determined Alpine’s paperwork insufficient. And with its protégé gone, Alpine had a vacancy alongside Esteban Ocon.

Now, with the blessing of Red Bull driver programme boss Helmut Marko, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and AlphaTauri’s Franz Tost, and the right conditions met (including finding an AlphaTauri replacement in Nyck de Vries), just four months after he re-signed for 2023, Gasly is on the move.

Why Gasly has flown the Red Bull nest

Gasly's time at Red Bull was short-lived amid much publicised struggles - and hopes of a recall were almost non-existent

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

He’s been allowed to leave because Marko recognises the 26-year-old’s service and desire to move to a French factory team. The Austrian, in his heart of hearts, also knows Gasly will likely never be recalled to Red Bull. The driver, meanwhile, has watched his career prospects stagnate since he was dropped from the main team part-way through 2019.

Like Alex Albon and now Sergio Perez, Gasly struggled to tame a skittish rear axle that Max Verstappen needs to excel. As such, he lasted just 12 rounds at the senior squad. In that time, he scored a best result of fourth to muster only 35% of Verstappen’s points tally and endured the worst intra-team qualifying deficit (0.529s) of any combination.

Gasly blamed other factors beyond car balance, feeling a lack of support. But it was also suspected that he was too granular, focusing on set-up tweaks to refine the RB15 for each corner at a cost of overall lap performance. He might have been more deferential, too. Marko reckoned “he looked for excuses instead of tackling his own mistakes.”

A return to Red Bull was almost certainly off the table for Gasly. That meant he was faced with another year at AlphaTauri, where he has nothing else to prove

Either way, it was a short union and despite returning to AlphaTauri with distinction and consistency, ever since Gasly has been stuck in a holding pattern. It must have hurt to see Red Bull look beyond its own driver pool to tap up Perez for 2021. Then the Mexican earlier this year inked an extension that will keep him until 2024. All told, there was no obvious promotion on the horizon for Gasly should he have stayed put.

After signing his latest AlphaTauri deal, the 2016 GP2 champion spoke of a desire for his next fight to return more than just top 10s. As a result, he has bolted from the Red Bull stable. And make no mistake, without a standout junior prospect tearing up FIA Formula 2 and waiting in the wings, Gasly would have been welcome to remain for some time.

His departure comes arguably a year ahead of schedule, with a move more likely for 2024. Instead, bidding to come out of the driver market saga with some reputation regained after losing Alonso and Piastri, Alpine has picked up the phone to offer what is currently described as a “multi-year” deal. It has wooed a driver who has led AlphaTauri well and done everything that could have been realistically asked for upon his demotion, including having the measure of team-mates Yuki Tsunoda and Daniil Kvyat.

The appeal of moving to Alpine

The chance to join his "national team" - and replace the out-going Fernando Alonso - was too good for Gasly to pass on

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Along with a return to Red Bull, a switch to Mercedes or Ferrari has long seemed farfetched. So, with McLaren wedded to Lando Norris and now Piastri, after bringing forward its parting of ways with Ricciardo by a year, Alpine represents the most competitive move imaginable for Gasly both now and in 2024, when he was originally meant to be shopping around.

Upon the shock news that Alonso had signed for Aston Martin for next season, the Spaniard said: “No-one in Formula 1 today is demonstrating a greater vision and absolute commitment to winning, and that makes it a really exciting opportunity for me.” While that reflects the construction of a new Silverstone factory and the recruitment drive funded by Lawrence Stroll, it can also be interpreted as a slight on Alpine. The team’s outgoing driver, who knows the Enstone facilities and working practices intimately, perceives it to have a lower ceiling.

But that doesn’t stop it from being a golden opportunity for Gasly. Had it not been for the unreliability that dogged the first half of the campaign, which appeared to stabilise before the double power unit failure in the Singapore Grand Prix, Alpine would comfortably be fourth in the constructors’ rather than having just slipped behind McLaren. By contrast, AlphaTauri is on course for ninth - which would mark its joint-worst finish since running under the Toro Rosso moniker in 2018.

There is, naturally, the element of having a French driver at an Anglo-French team, which has an appeal both for Gasly and Alpine. Renault Group CEO Luca de Meo says: “We are proud to present an all-French driver line up from 2023. Our roots are in France, and Alpine was born in Normandy, so this is a serendipity of sorts. Both will drive the team and the Group forward and, I hope, we can become a symbol of pride for France.”

Then there are the perks and most likely a higher salary that come with switching from an effective ‘B’ team to a full-fat manufacturer outfit. Whether realistic or not, the Renault Group wants its F1 effort to fight for titles as part of its latest 100-race timeline. AlphaTauri, though, is always expected to follow Red Bull over the line.

In the Gasly’s own words: “Driving for a team that has French roots is something very special. I know the strengths of Alpine having raced against them over the past couple of years and, clearly, their progress and ambition is very impressive.

“Looking ahead, I want to give the maximum and utilise all my experience to fight for podiums and ultimately contribute to Alpine’s fight for championships in the future.”

It remains ambitious to foresee Gasly ever being introduced on stage as a two-time F1 race winner, but there’s certainly scope for him to add to his tally of two further podiums.

The main obstacle that awaits

How will Ocon handle Gasly entering from stage left?

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

There is a fly in the ointment, though. It’s widely regarded that Gasly and his new team-mate have a fractious relationship. Per Gasly, this relates to their days karting. Ocon, he supposes, didn’t take kindly to having a compatriot replace him atop the podium in the quest to become France’s next F1 hope. Since then, they’ve cropped each other out of Instagram photos and are seldom together by choice. Ocon posting an admittedly sweet ‘selfie’ of the pair to coincide with the announcement of Gasly doesn’t fully reverse that.

For the good of Alpine in its quest to climb the constructors’, the obvious route is to reconcile the differences fully. Failing that, the pair must at least establish a sound working relationship, despite the inherent rivalry that being well-matched team-mates will bring. This will ensure transparency and the full disclosure of data to optimise the car each weekend. For Gasly, a cordial atmosphere will help ingratiate him to a staff that has had three years building a rapport with nice-guy Ocon.

Both parties deny an ongoing rift, naturally. But neither exactly give long, eloquent answers full of character-affirming praise when asked about the other. That might imply the friction still exits. Speaking at the Belgian GP in late August, Ocon said of Gasly: “It's going well, we have respect for each other. I think that's the important thing.” Asked if two in the same team could work, his brief reply was: “Yeah.” Gasly declined to comment.

"Driving for a team that has French roots is something very special. I know the strengths of Alpine having raced against them over the past couple of years and, clearly, their progress and ambition is very impressive" Pierre Gasly

Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer acknowledges the tension in public, too. After announcing Gasly, he said: “Esteban was very supportive, Pierre as well. They're professionals. They have no issue we're working together. Hopefully the friendship will rekindle, they were friends at one point. But from a professional perspective, they're both very happy to work with each other."

How Ocon - who, as the incumbent, will be the de facto team leader in Alonso’s absence - adjusts to the new set-up will be key. For a while, Gasly will take the limelight as the new, high-profile signing who firmly believes that because he’s beaten his stablemate before, he can do it again. This comes when at a time Ocon’s F1 stock has fallen. He is no longer mentioned in the same breath as Leclerc, Russell, and Verstappen.

This season, he has been comprehensively upstaged by Alonso. While Ocon might have seven more points heading ahead of Suzuka, much of that is owed to the two-time champion copping the lion’s share of Alpine fragility. Autosport readers have voted Alonso to ninth in the Driver Ratings average for the year, while Ocon is down in 14th.

Ocon will have the opportunity to move out from Alonso's shadow in 2023

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Given how mentally draining acrimony can be, both for the individuals involved and the team crew caught in the crossfire, it truly is in the best interest for this new partnership to be healthy and, fundamentally, bring success. The more settled both drivers are, the less likely it is one enters a protracted run of poor, head-dropping form.

A return to Red Bull was almost certainly off the table for Gasly. That meant he was faced with another year at AlphaTauri, where he has nothing else to prove, all while the team has struggled upon the return of ground-effects to slide down the order. To stay on for 2023, as per his original contract, would have been to, at best, tread water until the driver market spiced up again for the season after.

Alpine has rescued Gasly from that limbo. It has presented him with a chance to fight towards the sharp end of the grid. By the current form guide, he should harbour ambitions of at least top-five results rather than the occasional points finish per his current situation. He can establish himself at an upwardly mobile team rather than stay on at one expected to know its place (other than for hectic races at Monza every 12 years…)

For too long, Gasly’s standing in F1 has been qualified as being better than his team-mates at Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri, but in that growing pool of drivers deemed ‘not a match for Verstappen’. That’s no mean feat. But should he go on to vanquish well-rated and known quantity Ocon as well as lead Alpine on its climb up the order, he stands a far greater chance of crafting a tangible legacy. That can be the measure by which he will be judged, rather than being largely remembered for a brilliant but most unlikely standalone win.

Alpine has pulled Gasly from a Red Bull-enforced purgatory - but can he live up to the billing?

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images