After the announcement of Sebastian Vettel’s withdrawal from Formula 1 at the end of the 2022 season at the last Hungarian Grand Prix, some drivers have spoken out and recounted some of the experiences that have happened with the German.
One of them was Pierre Gasly who, in his adventure with the Red Bull family, shared moments with the four-time world champion in a “close relationship” between the two.
The French recognized that the category “will miss” the German, because he is a “legend of the sport”, and the current AlphaTauri pilot sees in the Heppenheim rider a true mentor in the Great Circus for his successes and how he has helped him .
“If you just look at the numbers, the wins and the pole positions, he is someone who is highly respected in the paddock, so he will be missed by everyone,” he said. “When I joined the Red Bull programme, I had the opportunity to be by his side in his last season there, and I could see how hard he worked and how committed he was to the team.
In addition, Pierre Gasly told a curious anecdote when he became GP2 champion, and starred in a phone call with Sebastian Vettel, which initially would last five minutes, but finally lasted an hour and a half.
“I always remember when I won my GP2 title and didn’t go on to Formula 1, I was in Singapore, and I remember calling him one night. It was five minutes for him to give me his opinion and get his point of view on things, to ask him for advice. and how to deal with the situation with Red Bull, but it turned into an hour and a half conversation.
“He was a Ferrari driver at the time, so it shouldn’t have been a priority to talk to me, but he still took that hour and a half to talk and advise me on how to handle the situation with Red Bull to improve,” he revealed. Gallic.
“I will always be very grateful to him for that, and after that we had a pretty close relationship, I think he is a fantastic driver, but also a great person,” Gasly continued.
The Frenchman had a tough spell as Max Verstappen’s teammate at the Milton Keynes outfit, and although he said they never spoke about what happened over the course of that half-season, he said they did exchange a few words afterwards.
“Not at that time, but later, of course, we talked about it for a few days, but never in depth,” admitted the AlphaTauri man.
His only victory in the highest category of motorsport is still remembered by everyone in the paddock, and Sebastian Vettel called to congratulate him: “He called me after my victory in Monza, and told me he was happy for Franz [Tost, team boss], he had also won in the wet and in the dry, in two different conditions [referring to the 2008 Italian GP]”.
“He was very happy for me, I think we’ve always gotten along very well, something about our character is similar, so I think we respect each other a lot,” Gasly said.
However, the German was not the only surprise that was found on the phone after the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, and that is that the president of France, Emmanuel Macron , wanted to speak with him.
“The French president thing was quite unexpected. He called me in the middle of the press conference, so I didn’t take the call. When I came out, I saw that he left me a voice message, and it was a bit strange to hear him and call me by my name saying : ‘Hello, I’m Mr Macron, your president.’ That gave me goosebumps,” Gasly concluded.
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