Pierre Gasly: If you’ve survived Helmut Marko, nothing else can knock you off course!

Pierre Gasly isn’t worried about hostility from Franco Colapinto’s fans in Brazil – he says: compared to Helmut Marko, everything else is no pressure

Pierre Gasly faces a particular challenge in Brazil: as Argentina won’t be hosting a Grand Prix for the foreseeable future, many Argentine fans are making the pilgrimage to São Paulo to cheer on his team-mate Franco Colapinto: “You definitely feel the support,” says the Frenchman. But that could prove to be a problem in his case.

After all, the Argentine fans have proven on several occasions in the recent past that they are very passionate and are not averse to going a bit too far. They don’t shy away from turning on their own team – or their team-mate, for that matter.

But Gasly is taking the extra pressure in Brazil in his own direction in his stride: “I’ve been in Formula 1 for ten years – and once you’ve had to deal with Helmut Marko, nothing else feels like pressure anymore.”

What Gasly means is this: as a former Red Bull junior, he spent years under the wing of Marko, who was regarded as a tough character and was capable of ramping up the pressure on drivers enormously. Gasly felt the full force of this too and was dropped by Red Bull after just half a year, being relegated to second-string status.

That’s why nothing can shock him now. “I know exactly what my job is, and that’s what I’m focusing on,” he emphasises. “I think that’s generally the beauty of Formula 1, and I actually draw a lot of positive energy from moments like that. I like being riled up so that I can then give the right response out on the track.”

Most recently in Mexico, Gasly was given a proper hard time – by the race stewards, no less. After the race, they handed him and his team-mate Colapinto time penalties for failing to slow down sufficiently under yellow flags. As a result, both Alpines dropped out of the points, which they’ll naturally be keen to make up for here in Brazil.

Strong record in Brazil for Gasly

Statistically, things are looking quite good, as Brazil is one of the best circuits for Gasly: It was here that he secured his first Formula 1 podium in 2019 and has finished in the points five times in the last six races – including in 2024 with Alpine’s extraordinary double podium and in 2025, which marked Gasly’s only top-10 finish in the entire second half of the season.

When asked about his strong record, he beams: “You’ve just made my day, because I didn’t even know that! I was woken up at 6 am this morning for a doping test, which is why I’m not exactly in the best of moods – I had a rubbish night,” he says.

” “But yes, that’s a brilliant statistic and I just love this place. It’s the only circuit where I’ve secured two podium finishes in Formula 1 so far: my very first in 2019 and then the one in 2024 in the rain. And it looks very much as though it’ll be raining again on Sunday. So I’m really looking forward to it!”

Yet he also knows that Alpine will have to push hard to achieve a good result: “In Mexico, we were about six tenths off pole position, so I’m now demanding a whole second from the team,” he says. ‘That’s exactly what we’re trying to find.’

He also emphasises: “Overall, we’ve taken a big step forward in all areas. Mechanically, there are still a few things we can optimise on the suspension. Aerodynamically, we know there are components on the car that we’re not entirely happy with and that we’ll be changing for next year.”

However, there isn’t really a single area where Alpine is lagging significantly behind the others. “So I very much hope that we’ll take another step forward.”