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Pierre Gasly feels “much better” racing with Alpine after being with AlphaTauri for 3 seasons.
Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are Alpine’s drivers for the 2023 season. (Image Credit: @Castrol on Twitter)Gasly has been with Red Bull for his entire F1 career. He made his debut in 2017 with Toro Rosso at the Malaysian Grand Prix, and was a full-time driver for the team in 2018. He made a step up to Red Bull’s main team, replacing Daniel Ricciardo, in 2019.
The Frenchman had an unlucky season and was demoted to Toro Rosso halfway through 2019. Since then, he has raced with Toro Rosso, known from 2020 onwards as AlphaTauri.
Gasly spoke to media about his move from AlphaTauri to Alpine at the A523 launch in Silverstone and said:
“It’s much better, I’m not going to lie. It’s definitely a much better feeling and a much more exciting feeling. So I’m excited.
“I take this very seriously. I’m a very competitive person and I really hope that we’re going to be able to carry the momentum that they have had over the last year and close the gap to the big three during this year.”
Fernando Alonso
The 27-year-old replaces Fernando Alonso at Alpine, but says he is not looking to compare himself to Alonso.
“I literally don’t look at Fernando at all. He’s done this career – an incredible career – and I’m just looking at myself and my own career. I want to be world champion one day, I want to win races, and I want to bring Alpine to the top and that’s all I’m focusing on.
“I think the team has learned a lot with Fernando, which is good, and will carry whatever they’ve taken from him going forward in the future. It’s up to us now with Esteban to work in the best way possible to keep that evolution and keep the progress we’ve been seeing over the last few years and close that gap with the top three.”
Confidence for the season
Gasly says that he is confident in his ability to click with the car. He has limited time in pre-season testing to get very familiar, but he’s “open-minded” about it.
“If you ask me, I want to be 110% straight away from day one. But then I’ve got to be objective and realistic that you never really know how much time it takes. Sometimes it’s a race, sometimes it’s three races, sometimes it just clicks straight away. So I’m just very open-minded about it.
“As I say, I feel very confident, very comfortable and the team has given me all the environments needed to feel at home and just to get feeling comfortable to be at my best potential for the first race.”
Featured Image Credit: Auto-moto-und-sport.de