Pierre Gasly sought assurances from Renault CEO ahead of Alpine move

As well as speaking to Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi, Pierre Gasly also wanted to hear Renault’s plans ahead of joining their Alpine team.

With both Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri out of the equation for 2023, Alpine would turn their attentions to AlphaTauri driver Gasly.

And they ultimately were successful in freeing the Frenchman from his contract at Red Bull that had one year left to run, thus creating an all-French line-up of Gasly and Esteban Ocon for 2023.

2023 will be the third season of the Alpine name in Formula 1, following Renault’s rebranding of their works team to reflect their Alpine division. The team continues to have exclusive use of the Renault power unit.

And so, Gasly also wanted to hear from Renault CEO Luca de Meo in regards to the firm’s Formula 1 plans, and was told that the summit of the series is very much the goal.

“I was also informed of the plans and projects for the next few years by Luca de Meo,” Gasly toldAuto Motor und Sport. “I wanted to know how much Renault is behind this project.

“They will do everything to get to the top and being in an official team of a manufacturer gives a driver the guarantee of having the best possible material at the team’s disposal.”

Alpine the golden project for Pierre Gasly

虽然几年来另一个中枪红部ll seemed like Gasly’s door to returning to a front-running car, Alpine presents a whole new opportunity, and one where the Frenchman will not have to battle against a daunting team-mate like Max Verstappen, already established as theclear team leader.

As Gasly refers to, Alpine are in a unique position compared to their midfield rivals for the fact that they are a full works team using the Renault power unit, while the rest of the midfield, going by the2022 standings, are all customer teams.

The significance of being a customer team in modern Formula 1 is always played down, though there are obvious benefits to not being a customer, like the fact that the PU is designed specifically to work as efficiently as possible in the Alpine challenger.

Alpine finished at the head of the 2022 midfield after a season of consistent and impressive improvement, so now Gasly can use his experience and ability to help Alpine towards the front of the grid, the scene which the team has been absent from since returning to the grid in 2016.

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