Gasly, an AlphaTauri driver who won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, enjoyed a three-hour dinner with former NBA star Michael Jordan , who won six championships with the Chicago Bulls during his stellar 15-year professional career. In addition to his sporting success, Jordan became a cultural icon, fueled by the success of Nike’s Air Jordan range of sneakers.
One of Gasly’s personal sponsors, who is a friend of Jordan’s, arranged for them to meet on Wednesday, ahead of the opening Miami Grand Prix at Hard Rock Stadium this weekend.
“It has been by far the best experience of my life,” Gasly said Thursday. “The most inspiring dinner I’ve ever had. Since I was a child he has always inspired me because of his mentality and the success he has had over the years.”
“Everyone says you should never meet your idol because you can be disappointed, but this was the complete opposite. The guy is a genius, he’s in another league, because of the way he thinks intellectually. I’m very, very impressed.”
“I didn’t know he was such a big F1 fan. He almost knows the sport better than I do. It was very impressive and great to talk about it with a legend like him. It was a great dinner, I will remember it all my life.”
Gasly gave Jordan one of his helmets, and in return he got the legend to sign his Air Jordans.
“I gave him one of my helmets and he signed one of my Jordans for me, so that’s going in my safe at home, in my trophy case,” Gasly joked. “By exchanging with a champion like that, you always learn a lot from them and how they approach the sport, the successes and the failures.”
“It’s about how to maintain this level of performance, I don’t think there is anyone in the world I would like to have known more than him.”
Michael Jordan, NBA Hall of Famer and co-owner of 23XI Racing
Photo by: Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
Jordan entered the world of motorsports as a NASCAR Cup team owner last year, starting 23XI Racing along with Cup star Denny Hamlin. His Toyota team now races Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch in the series, and it was a topic of discussion over dinner with Gasly.
“Of course we talk about it, we talk about a lot of things,” Gasly added. “We spent three hours together, we talked about NASCAR, motorsport… I didn’t know he got up early on Sunday mornings to watch our F1 races. He’s a huge fan.”
“But it’s not easy, if you’re Michael Jordan, to show up at events like this, even though you’d like to. Even if we don’t see him on the court, he still follows us. I was surprised by how many details he knew about our sport. It shows that he has a great interest in motoring”.
When asked if he could get to drive his NASCAR, Gasly replied: “It might happen, it might happen.”
“We’ll probably meet some other time. We made a great connection over dinner. She’s a very special person, and we’ll see how the relationship grows from there. I have another invitation, when I come back to the States, so it’s clear that the I will accept”.
