Some drivers find themselves on the top step of the podium so often that we no longer make a case of it. Others must cherish the moment when it passes. These moments of glory, however ephemeral, then become a source of perpetual motivation. Talk to Pierre Gasly.
Year: 2020. Location: Monza, Italy. Stable: AlphaTauri.
Pierre Gasly’s blue eyes light up. His lips curve into a slight smile. This is the effect caused by the evocation of his last, and only, victory in Formula 1.
“I remember everything,” says the 27-year-old pilot in an interview with The Press, Thursday, at Alpine headquarters. “It’s so emotional. It’s something you don’t forget. »
In this sport where there is an almost total absence of parity, many pilots will never know the euphoria of shaking a bottle of champagne in front of a compact crowd. For example, on the current grid, only 10 of the 20 athletes have experienced it.
On Pierre Gasly’s Instagram page, the pinned images at the top show him with the trophy at arm’s length. If this fleeting moment of glory dates from three years ago, it still serves as a daily motivation to this day.
“Even on my phone, I have the photo of the Monza podium”, let us know the native of Rouen, in Normandy.
Faced with our astonishment, he adds: “It’s motivating! For me, it was such a strong moment, so good, so motivating. »
I remember the Monday morning after the victory. I said to myself: “This is the kind of feeling that I want to have in my life, this is exactly the reason why we work. That’s the goal.”
Pierre Gasly
That’s the goal, yes. And we can guess that it was with this desire to reconnect with victory one day that Gasly decided, at the end of the 2022 season, to leave AlphaTauri and the Red Bull sector to join Alpine.
An adaptation
Although Alpine’s results have not lived up to expectations at the start of the season, Pierre Gasly and his teammate, Esteban Ocon, can be happy with their most recent results. Slowly but surely the team is making progress in its quest to compete with leaders Red Bull, Mercedes, Aston Martin and Ferrari.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Esteban Ocon
Gasly, he is still “really happy” with his change of team. It must be said that his future within the Red Bull sector was limited by the signing of Sergio Pérez until 2024.
“I have embarked on a new project in which I strongly believe,” he says. I believe that there is enormous potential on the part of the team which is not necessarily fully exploited at the moment. »
Ultimately, it is still too early to judge the performance of the French driver in his new team. The reason is simple: who says team change says new environment, new colleagues, new ways of communicating and working.
“It really is a world I have to get used to. For me, it requires more energy than before, in an environment that I knew perfectly, with people that I knew perfectly. »
Internal competition
The relationship between Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, both natives of Normandy, was often discussed in the world of F1 at the start of the season. In short, the two team members grew up together in karting. However, their bond of friendship has become complicated, even tarnished, over time.
Still, the two drivers find themselves today within the same team, at the top of their sport, and they must join forces to improve their car. Ocon, whom we met a little earlier on Thursday during a press scrum, also recalled an important element: “When the two drivers are 100% involved in what we have to do, inevitably, it has more weight for the team, so they prioritize those things. »
The two sympathetic Frenchmen have become “very connected on a lot of things recently”, says Ocon. Words supported by Gasly a little later.
“We’re not the best of friends and that doesn’t prevent us from working together at all,” he said.
Both of us want to win. Both of us want the best car on the board. We hope that our biggest problem, one day, will be to fight first and second with the car. That will mean that we will have done a good job.
Pierre Gasly
Internal competition is part of sport. Each team in the paddock presents two drivers who, inevitably, are more adversaries than teammates. So goes F1.
In Monaco, Gasly saw Ocon give Alpine a first podium since 2021. Although he is 10 points behind his team-mate in the drivers’ championship, Gasly prefers to look ahead rather than behind.
“I just joined the team. I see that things are falling into place weekend after weekend, that it is progressing, that there is clearly potential, and that is what matters most to me. »
As for the results, they will come, he assures us.
And then, who knows, maybe he will be able to change his wallpaper photo to one of these four…