Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri renewal is no long-term deal, as the French driver made very clear about his contract extension.
“I have been with this team for five years now and I am proud of the journey we’ve been through together and the progress we have made,” said Pierre Gasly, as his position as an AlphaTauri driver for 2023 was confirmed on Friday.
“I’m happy to remain with my Scuderia AlphaTauri team. This year’s new regulations have created new challenges for us and being able to plan our development with the team for the next 18 months is a good working basis for the future.”
Gasly’s words are striking, in that there are no vague allusions to the future or any pretence that he has any further interest in a long-term project at his current team. Instead, he appears to have put a very firm timeline on the length of time he expects to remain with the Red Bull outfit – perhaps an unsurprising stance to take as the French driver continues to tread water in the midfield.
Given that it’s usually Red Bull making the calls to swap out and in various drivers, it’s also striking that it appears to be Gasly in the commanding position with Red Bull – his form single-handedly rescuing AlphaTauri from ignominy in 2021. But, given the glass ceiling that Gasly appears to have hit with his leadership of AlphaTauri, there’s only one direction for him to go – downwards. And he knows it.
After a few years of utter turmoil for the Red Bull teams with a revolving door of drivers, both teams are now in a good place.
Max Verstappen’s position is unquestioned, while external hire Sergio Perez has overcome a rocky 2021 to become a trusted force in the second seat – much to Gasly’s annoyance, with the door to a re-promotion slammed in his face due to Perez’s re-signing until the end of ’24.
With Yuki Tsunoda also finding form in a much more mature 2022 season, there’s little reason for Red Bull to panic about their junior driver programme too much at the moment. Indeed, given the lack of current F1 opportunities for upcoming drivers, it’s made life much easier for them to deal with offloading one of those said juniors.
Earlier this week, Juri Vips made headlines for all the wrong reasons as the Estonian driver used a racial slur while broadcasting himself playing Call of Duty on an online stream.
It’s led Red Bull to begin an “investigation” into his behaviour, and condemnation from his Formula 2 team Hitech. But, a cursory…
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