Pierre Gasly explains why the 2013 season was possibly the most important of his career and why, without the title, he might never have made it to Formula 1.
Did Pierre Gasly’s entire career in 2013 hinge on a single race? At least that’s what the Frenchman suggests in a video interview with Formula 1, saying that without the title in the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup at the time, he might never have made it to the premier class.
He recalls that 2013 was an “all-or-nothing season” for him, explaining: “There was half a million [euros] for the champion—and nothing for the runner-up.” As a result, he was under the most pressure “I’ve ever felt in my entire career.”
“It was decided in the last race against Oliver Rowland, whom I hold in high regard,” Gasly recalls, explaining: “He had to win the race and gave it his all. He rear-ended me, spun me around, but I came back to sixth place and won the championship.”
But even though Gasly secured the title, it was initially unclear how things would continue for him.
“A month later, I met Helmut [Marko],” Gasly recalls. But the conversation with the Austrian did not go as hoped at first. Marko’s conclusion was: “I hadn’t won enough races, achieved enough pole positions, or driven enough fastest laps. So I thought to myself: What am I doing here if I’m just going to be criticized?”
But in the end, Marko offered him a contract in Red Bull’s junior program, which Gasly accepted. That was a “turning point in my career,” emphasizes the Frenchman, who competed in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2014 with the support of Red Bull.
There, he finished runner-up behind Carlos Sainz, two years later he won the title in what was then GP2, and in 2017 he drove his first Formula 1 races for Toro Rosso. In 2026, the Frenchman will now enter his tenth season in the premier class.
Without winning the title in 2013, his career might have taken a completely different course.
