Born: 7/2/1996 Rouen, France
Pierre Gasly’s 2023 F1 season with BWT Alpine F1 Team is his first in the series outside of the Red Bull fold.
Born in the city of Rouen – home to the French Grand Prix for a time during the 1950s and 1960s – Gasly had more than just motorsport heritage on his doorstep to inspire his career path.
Indeed, Gasly’s family enjoyed its own rich history on four wheels with his grandfather and grandmother both successful in karting, while his father Jean-Jacques dabbled in karting, endurance racing and rallying. Going from one French racing institution to another with his move to the city of Le Mans, Gasly’s burgeoning motorsport career gathered momentum with a successful stint in karting before making his open-wheel debut in 2011 via the French F4 Championship.
From here, success quickly followed with Gasly winning the coveted Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 in 2013, earning him entry into the Red Bull Junior Team. Promoted to a Formula Renault 3.5 Series drive for 2014, Gasly finished runner-up to future F1 rival and Red Bull stablemate Carlos Sainz.
He’d go on to capture the limelight in 2016 with a run to the GP2 Series title following a season-long duel with Antonio Giovinazzi but was made to wait on his F1 graduation, instead taking in a Super Formula campaign in Japan.
A typical mid-season rotation at Scuderia Toro Rosso would eventually land Gasly his F1 opportunity towards the end of the 2017 season, the Frenchman staying in the Red Bull ranks until the end of the 2022 season following his signing by Alpine.
2022 - Scuderia AlphaTauri
14th - 23 points
After a breakthrough 2021 F1 campaign, hopes were high that AlphaTauri could make another step towards the front in 2022. However, the car proved a handful to drive with a misstep in the design process under the new technical regulations making the AT03 one of the worst offenders for ‘porpoising’.
Despite this, Gasly got some good points on the board in two of the opening three rounds, scoring an eighth in Saudi Arabia and a ninth in Australia. However, good scores thereafter proved harder to come by with a brief highlight of fifth in an unpredictable Azerbaijan Grand Prix punctuating a run of ten races without points.
A trio of top ten finishes towards the end of the season lifted spirits, but while 14th overall marked a step back from 2021, Gasly’s attentions were already focused towards pastures new at Alpine in 2023.
2021 - Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
9th - 110 points
After the breakthrough of his race-winning 2020 F1 campaign, Gasly carried that momentum through for his strongest season to date in 2021.
Though there was nothing quite like his memorable Monza triumph to define his season, Gasly was nonetheless a consistent force throughout the year, scoring top ten results in 15 of the 22 races. While most placed Gasly in the heart of a busy mid-pack battle, highlights included another podium in Baku with his run to third, while he’d start on the front row for the first time in Qatar too.
Together with top five finishes in the Netherlands, Hungary, Mexico and Abu Dhabi, Gasly concluded the season ninth overall.
2020 - Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda
10th - 75 points
With Toro Rosso rebranding to AlphaTauri over the winter, Gasly also came into the season looking to upgrade his image in the wake of his high-profile promotion-turned-relegation from Red Bull.
Capitalising on further gains being made by Honda on the engine front, Gasly once more established himself as a top ten finisher in the busy mid-pack, before stunning the paddock with a shock run to victory in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Taking advantage of fortuitous safety cars, penalties for rivals and a well-executed restart following a red flag stop, Gasly shook out in the lead with 25 laps to go before confidently repelling the advances of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz in the closing stages to hold on for his maiden win.
It marked the Faenza-based team’s second victory in F1, some 13 years after Sebastian Vettel cruised to a famous success around the very same venue under the Toro Rosso banner.
2019 - Aston Martin Red Bull Racing & Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
7th - 95 points
With Daniel Ricciardo’s unexpected exit from Red Bull paving the way for Gasly to be promoted to the ‘A-Team’ in 2019, many relished the prospect of the Frenchman taking the fight to Max Verstappen in equal machinery.
However, it became clear the RB15 was not to Gasly’s liking and he struggled to find the sweet spot as easily as his team-mate could, leaving him noticeably adrift of the Dutchman on the timesheets. Despite gritty efforts to crack the top five in Monaco and at Silverstone, Gasly’s underwhelming performances had him coming under pressure heading into the summer break, despite the insistence of Red Bull bosses that his seat was safe.
The rumours would turn out to be true, Gasly being swapped out by Alex Albon for the remainder of the season. Back in the confines of Toro Rosso, Gasly earned respect for getting his head down to get good results for the Italian outfit, his perseverance rewarded with a run to second in Brazil for his maiden F1 podium.
2018 - Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda
15th - 29 points
With his nascent efforts enough to secure him a full deal for 2018, Gasly’s maiden campaign coincided with Toro Rosso’s switch to Honda power.
With the Italian team being tasked with developing and acquiring data for Red Bull ahead of its own switch to Japanese power for 2019, the Honda V6 hybrid power unit – much maligned by former partners McLaren – was better suited to the Toro Rosso.
While technical gremlins persisted, Gasly earned plaudits with a number of competitive performances, most notably his on-merit run to fourth place in Bahrain for his maiden F1 points. Top tens in Monaco, Hungary, Belgium and Mexico followed, placing Gasly 15th in the overall standings, well clear of team-mate Brendon Hartley.
2017 - Scuderia Toro Rosso
21st - 0 points [5 starts]
Despite his run to the GP2 Series title in 2016, Gasly was made to wait for his Red Bull-backed F1 opportunity in 2017 after Toro Rosso opted to retain Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz.
Busying himself with a stint in the Japan-based Super Formula series, Gasly’s big break finally came with six rounds of the season remaining when he was called up to replace the out-of-favour Kvyat in the Toro Rosso squad.
Contesting five of the final six events, though Gasly didn’t crack the points before the end of the year, he reached the flag in each. It was enough to convince Red Bull and Toro Rosso to offer him a full season deal for 2018.
