Fernando Alonso to Aston Martin. Oscar Piastri to McLaren. Pierre Gasley to Alpine. That triple movement in Formula 1 was closely related. Because the market began to move when the departure of the Asturian from the Alpine team was announced by surprise.
Gasly, in statements collected by ‘GPFans’, talks about everything that happened in the market: “The situation changed completely from the moment Fernando left”.
“That sparked the whole case that followed, and in the end, it was a positive chaos for me, because it ended up creating an amazing opportunity, and a very exciting collaboration with Alpine. It was definitely something unexpected, at least for the next year,” he explains. .
It was that change from Fernando that caused the negotiations to accelerate. Because days before the scenario was very different: “There was a moment in which it seemed more and more likely that Daniel (Ricciardo) kept his seat at McLaren, so we would both be ending our contracts at the end of 2023.”
“Fernando had been offered a one-year extension, so by then all opportunities were open for 2024. He had already signed with AlphaTauri to continue until the end of my contract with Red Bull”, he explains.
“They were always interested in me in the past, and keeping an eye on my career. But let’s say that everything began to materialize when Fernando pulled the trigger and went to Aston“, details Gasly.
He felt that at Red Bull, where he had lost his seat in the first team, he could no longer progress: “I saw that I was reaching the ceiling. I was not going to go up, and I told them that I am not a driver who is satisfied fighting to be eighth or 10th. That’s not what I work for. That’s not my daily motivation, I want and need more than that.”
