Formula 1

PIERRE GASLY ON HIS INCREDIBLE SEASON 2020

Published

2 years ago

20/12/2020

PIERRE GASLY ON HIS INCREDIBLE SEASON 2020

Gasly’s current performances are totally deserving of a promotion to the Red Bull senior team again. But they also deserve complete and utter commitment.

The constant, deep-rooted doubt Red Bull has – having ruled out promoting him again – means his next big shot should come elsewhere.

Clearly AlphaTauri brings the best out of him, and he gets a lot out of the team. He can keep fighting for points every weekend in 2021 so there’s no reason to change – instead he should be lining something big up for 2022.

If I were Pierre I’d be gunning hard for Renault. Esteban Ocon’s picking up, but Gasly should consider that seat – or maybe the one Fernando Alonso is coming back for – fair game longer-term. Because this version of Gasly can spearhead a top team for years to come.

Pierre Gasly’s F1 redemption arc was completed in 2020 as he took a shock first victory in the sport for AlphaTauri amid a brilliant season.

After his knock backs and Red Bull rejection in 2019, Pierre Gasly hit back with remarkable resilience as he carved out the best season of his F1 career to date with AlphaTauri.

Naturally, his dream maiden F1 victory at Monza will be remembered as the standout moment of 2020. Aided by a large slice of good fortune and luck, Gasly found himself in the unlikely position of leading the Italian Grand Prix and resisted intense late pressure to fend off McLaren’s Carlos Sainz to take his first win in the sport and deliver one of F1’s greatest feel good moments of the year.

But Monza was just the highlight of a number of accomplished drives Gasly produced across the season. Following on from his strong end to 2019, the Frenchman continued to build on his performances and took important momentum into an unprecedented 2020 campaign.

Gasly was back to his best at AlphaTauri as he worked to successfully rebuild his reputation following his demotion from Red Bull that left his career up in the air in a year in which he had also suffered personal tragedy after losing his best friend Anthoine Hubert.

Gasly claimed 10 points finishes across the 17-round campaign to earn himself a spot inside the top-10 in the drivers’ championship, with particularly outstanding drives coming at Spa, Portugal and Bahrain.

He also made it into Q3 on eight occasions as he comprehensively outperformed teammate Daniil Kvyat in both qualifying and the races, beating the Russian 12-2 in the Saturday head-to-heads and managing 63 points compared to Kvyat’s 26.

Now mentally stronger than ever having recovered from his lowest of lows, Gasly was reliable and consistently fast as he not only secured his future in F1 and proved his qualities beyond doubt, but also asserted himself as a team leader at AlphaTauri.