Alpine driver Pierre Gasly on his team’s upturn and a special Formula 1 record: What’s in it for Alpine at the race in Las Vegas
Alpine will show just how much of a difference just one race can make in the 2024 Formula 1 season: by finishing second and third at the Brazilian Grand Prix, the French-British team moved up from penultimate place in the constructors’ championship to sixth. This means cash for the team, which has recently made headlines mainly for abandoning its own drive project.
But there is more than just a good race, as Alpine’s current qualifying form proves: the team has had a driver in the top 10 in each of the last three Grands Prix. And that after both Alpine drivers were eliminated in Q1 at the start of the season.
Pierre Gasly attributes this turnaround to “some parameter changes” on the A524 “so that we can now really make the tires work. I had a few problems with that, especially since the tires are very sensitive. But on the most recent weekends, we really managed to get the tires into the ideal window and get everything out of them.”
However, this cannot hide the fact that Alpine still has a comparatively weak car. He himself, says Gasly, has so far been “not satisfied” with his car.
Reason: “It really didn’t give me what I needed. Now that we’re adding more and more parts, we’re starting to get closer. We’re not there yet, but we will be. And it’s mainly the tires that have allowed us to make good progress recently.”
What sets Gasly apart in the Formula 1 midfield
This (and the weather conditions, including the red flag in the race) helped to bring Gasly and his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon onto the podium in Brazil. And that has earned Gasly an interesting entry in the Formula 1 statistics: “They say I’m the only driver to have achieved five podiums with teams outside the top five,” says Gasly.
“That’s kind of the story of my career at the moment: if you drive midfield cars, you get a chance at some point every year. One or two races offer you an opportunity. Then you have to be there and take advantage of those chances. I’ve always done that well at AlphaTauri/Toro Rosso.”
“But then you can’t afford to make any mistakes. Like in a season like the current one: it may not look like you’re going to get a strong result, but you still have to be prepared.”
In certain respects, this is very satisfying for a driver if they are successful. But ultimately, you always want more. Namely, “a car that allows me to do that much more often,” says Gasly. “Then we could fight for such positions more consistently. In any case, I feel ready for it. But that’s another topic.”
“Right now, I’m struggling with the car I have. Next year, we will have a stronger starting point. That being said, I am already keeping an eye on 2026 because it represents a great opportunity for everyone,” says Gasly.
Gasly: 2023 gives cause for hope in Las Vegas
And what is possible for Alpine in the short term, as early as this weekend in Las Vegas? Gasly points to his “fantastic qualifying” last year with fifth place. “In the first stint of the race, I then fought with George [Russell] for third place. After that, we switched to the hard-compound tires and fell further and further back in the last 30 laps because we had terrible graining.”
But, as Gasly points out, last year’s Las Vegas premiere should not be a bad omen: “It reminds me exactly what we have to work towards this weekend.”
With Tsunoda in the karaoke bar in Milan
And Gasly is coming to this race weekend well rested because he threw a small welcome party for his former Formula One team-mate Yuki Tsunoda at his home in Milan, Italy: “I took him to a karaoke evening. There’s a nice karaoke place around the corner. That’s where we went. There were only four of us, but we had a lot of fun.”
They belted out a few Adele songs, “there was a bit of rap too,” says Gasly. “It was a nice hour. And my voice was pretty gone afterwards. So yes, we had a lot of fun.”
Tsunoda now also lives in the Italian city, like Gasly. “I’m happy that he moved here,” says Gasly. “Yuki is one of my good friends and a really great guy. I’m sure we’ll be planning even more activities together soon.”
