Pierre Gasly won the GP2 in 2016, but initially did not get a Formula 1 cockpit from Red Bull – for the Frenchman, it was “like a slap in the face” at the time.
Pierre Gasly will be entering his tenth Formula 1 season in 2026. The Frenchman competed in his first races in the premier class at the end of 2017 for the then Toro Rosso team and later also raced for Red Bull and, since 2023, for Alpine.
However, the start of his Formula 1 career was much bumpier than he would have liked. After Gasly won the GP2 title in 2016, he did not initially move up to the premier class in 2017, but instead to the Japanese Super Formula.
“It was very difficult to accept because I was told, ‘If you win the GP2 championship, you’ll get a chance in Formula 1,’” recalls Gasly, then a Red Bull junior driver, in a video interview with Formula 1.
“It was like a slap in the face. I thought, ‘Okay, what else do I have to do?’“ said Gasly, who, after winning the championship in what was then the Formula 1 junior series, initially only got the job as a reserve driver at Red Bull for 2017.
However, he continued to believe ”that I would get my chance,” he reveals. At the 15th race of the 2017 season in Malaysia, Gasly finally got his chance with sister team Toro Rosso. There, he replaced the unlucky Daniil Kvyat. “When I got the chance, I was overjoyed,” Gasly recalls, reporting: “Helmut [Marko] called me and said,
‘Get ready, you’re racing this weekend,’” says Gasly, who from that point on had control of his future again. In 2018, he became a regular driver at Toro Rosso, and just one year later, Red Bull even promoted him to the A team alongside Max Verstappen, where he had to vacate his seat after only twelve races and was replaced by Alexander Albon.
Gasly then returned to Toro Rosso. With the Faenza-based team, he celebrated the first and so far only victory of his Formula 1 career at Monza in 2020. For the 2023 season, he finally left Red Bull and moved to Alpine.