After many rumors following the departure of Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin and the failed signing of Oscar Piastri, the Alpine team has announced the signing of what will be Esteban Ocon’s partner for the 2023 Formula 1 season, Pierre Gasly.
The French driver, who has signed a multi-year contract , will be in charge, together with his compatriot, of continuing the development of the Ensonte team in the Grand Circus to meet its goal of fighting for the world title in a hundred races .
This was first revealed by Motorsport.com on the weekend of the Belgian GP, advancing information that has finally been completed.
Doubts about who would take the two-time Spanish champion’s seat after his departure from Alpine began in early August, when young Australian academy star Piastri denied having signed any contract with them. Since then, the Gauls sounded out their possibilities in the market, even organizing some private tests at the Hungaroring circuit to study the options of names as surprising as Antonio Giovinazzi, Jack Doohan or Nyck de Vries .
Precisely the Dutchman was one of the keys in Gasly’s agreement with Alpine, since the Frenchman had a closed contract with AlphaTauri for the next campaign, and it was necessary to find a replacement for him to let him out.
After the FIA refused to superlicense Colton Herta, AlphaTauri’s first candidate, Red Bull saw in the Formula E champion to a replacement of guarantees. Thus, and after achieving the signing of the pilot who surprised the world in his F1 debut with Williams in Italy, he gave freedom to the one who had been his pilot since 2017 in Formula 1 to fly from the nest and go to Alpine.
“I am delighted to join the Alpine family and start this new chapter in my F1 career,” said Gasly. “Driving for a team that has French roots is something very special.”
“I know Alpine’s strengths having raced against them for the last two years and clearly their progress and ambition is very impressive. I want to say a big thank you to Red Bull as this marks the end of our nine year journey. together”.
“Thanks to their trust and support, I was able to become a Formula 1 driver, and what we have achieved with Scuderia AlphaTauri in recent years has been very special.”
“Going forward, I want to give my all and use all my experience to fight for podiums and help Alpine fight for the championship in the future.”
Thus, Alpine’s line-up will feature two grand prix winners, and an all-French squad to return to glory a team that, on its return to the highest category of motorsport back in the 2016 season under the name of Renault, has not been able to fight for what he set out to do, win the World Cup.
It will be the first Renault line-up with two French drivers since Alain Prost and Rene Arnoux were teammates in 1982. After signing Gasly for several seasons, they will be together for at least two years, since Ocon has a contract until 2024 (included).
Groupe Renault CEO Luca de Meo , who was heavily involved in the decision to sign Gasly and is present at Suzuka this weekend, made it clear that having two French drivers in his line-up next year is a nice move. chance.
“We are proud to introduce an all-French driver line-up from 2023. Our roots are in France, and Alpine was born in Normandy, so this is something of a fluke.”
“Both of them will propel the team and the group forward and, hopefully, we can become a symbol of pride for France.”
Pierre Gasly has before him the best opportunity of his life to demonstrate that the extremely poor stage with the energy drinks team, where he was always behind Max Verstappen and never got on the podium with a single-seater capable of fighting for victories, was a parenthesis in his career.
The comings and goings of his sports management and the way in which the team has been managed has caused a delay in the harvest of results, but that has not been an impediment to calling the attention of Pierre Gasly to start a new life away from the Red Bull yoke.
