Why ‘miles off’ Alpine didn’t prompt Gasly to give up on its F1 recovery

Pierre Gasly could easily have been forgiven for thinking that Alpine is not the best place to make him a winner again in Formula 1.

After starting the campaign at the back of the grid, seeing key staff leave and there being talk of a potential end-of-works team status down the road, it has been a far from ideal season.

But after agreeing on a contract extension ahead of the Austrian GP that commits him to the French manufacturer, Gasly is adamant that Alpine can still deliver him everything that he wants.

Rather than thinking what has been witnessed in 2024 is a sign of where he thinks it will be over the next few years, he points to the fluctuating form of top teams like McLaren and Mercedes as evidence that performance never sits still for long in F1.

So instead of basing his final decision on how the A524 is performing now, he says what he is seeing behind the scenes – with infrastructure changes and a fresh approach – is far more critical to sealing his belief in what Alpine can offer.

“Personally, I’ve seen enough in F1 that you cannot rely on a single-car concept,” he said.

“McLaren has proved it in the last two years, and Mercedes also showed they sometimes get it right and sometimes get it wrong. It takes some time to get back to the top.

“But it is mainly in the structure, in the facilities and in the technical stuff you are bringing. That was the most important to me, so that is why I tried to pay attention [to it].

“Over the last couple of months, I tried to see the dynamic going on at the factory and, regardless of the performance on the track, which is miles from where we want to be, we are trying to see solutions and things we can bring on board.

“Obviously Luca [de Meo] and Bruno [Famin] played a big part, as everyone is trying to defend what they have, and 2026 is also going to be a big change of regulations. It is why it took a bit of time before making my own decision.”

While confirmation of his new deal comes just one week after the arrival of Flavio Briatore as a consultant to de Meo, Gasly is adamant that the Italian’s presence in the team was not key to him putting pen to paper.

“No, Flavio didn’t really influence,” he said. “It was a long conversation over the last couple of months, but it was time to commit for my future. I am very happy and very excited to commit to the team, because it is also good to have some…