Pierre Gasly officially confirmed at Alpine F1 for next season!

The adventures have been numerous and the planets had to align, but Alpine finally has its second driver for the 2023 F1 season and it is French driver Pierre Gasly who will join Esteban Ocon in a 100% French line-up.

Alpine struggled.

Surprised by Alonso’s departure to Aston Martin next season, Alpine attempted to promote their reserve driver, Oscar Piastri, who is from their lower series teams, but he declined the offer to join the Formula 1 team. Without a second driver meeting their criteria and with an available contract, the French team negotiated with Red Bull to recruit Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri.

Pierre Gasly is leaving the Red Bull fold.

Since his debut in single-seater racing, Pierre Gasly has been a Red Bull driver. He has competed in 6 seasons in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso and then Red Bull, before returning to AlphaTauri (formerly known as Toro Rosso) due to a challenging experience with the main team.

It therefore took Pierre Gasly a seventh season in Formula 1 to leave the Red Bull fold, despite having a contract validated for next season.

The contract was indeed broken thanks to Alpine, finding interesting counterparts for AlphaTauri.

AlphaTauri had to find an interesting driver.

To free Gasly, AlphaTauri had to find a replacement who could match Gasly’s performances. With the increase in the number of Grand Prix races in the United States, the Red Bull family wanted to place an American driver in the form of Colton Herta. However, despite the joint efforts of Alpine, McLaren, and Red Bull, Herta did not obtain his super license in time. Therefore, another driver was ultimately chosen. Nyck de Vries, thanks in particular to his impressive performances as a last-minute replacement for Alexander Albon at Monza, who suffered from appendicitis, was chosen by Faenza as Gasly’s replacement.