68 days after Fernando Alonso left everyone open-mouthed with his departure for Aston Martin, Alpine has found a valid replacement in Pierre Gasly, but one that has cost them a significant amount of money.
A little over 2 months have passed since August 1, the first day of the Formula 1 summer vacation, Fernando Alonso The transfer market was blown up with the announcement of his departure to Aston Martin, leaving behind an Alpine in which he felt “too much”, in his own words, with numerous inconveniences along the way.
Although Otmar Szafnauer, the head of the French team in the circuits, regrets the loss of “a great asset” for Alpinethe Romanian leader has also left for liar to #14 accusing him of not telling the truth in the days prior to his official passage to the structure commanded by Lawrence Stroll, revealing tensions that are still latent today.
«It is a great change in my career; I start a new chapter with Alpine»
Waiting to see what Haas does with his second seat, with Mick Schumacher on the tightrope due to results that do not quite convince Guenther Steiner, the rest of the teams have closed their corresponding pairs with Pierre Gasly and Nick deVries as the last to officially settle in Suzuka, in Alpine and AlphaTauri respectively.
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Still in September, Alpine mounted its particular ‘Operation Triumph’ in Hungary to choose Alonso’s replacement. However, the one who first received the call from the French was Daniel Ricciardoan option that they finally ruled out when considering better a Gasly who is currently 26 years old, seven years younger than the Australian driver.
As reported Sky Sports, the signing of Gasly has brought Alpine a significant sum of money. “It was a clear and definitely very attractive call,” Gasly himself confessed. «I felt the time was right to take my own start and take my career on my own and start this amazing story with Alpine. What is easy in Formula 1? Nothing is easy!”.
The amount to pay to get rid of Red Bull has been €10 million. “I must admit that I am very grateful to everyone involved because everyone has tried their best to achieve it. From Red Bull’s side, Christian and Helmut understood how important, how big this opportunity was for me and my desire to go there and start this new adventure with Alpine,” Gasly continued.
“It’s a big change in my career. I close a chapter of nine years with Red Bullhaving had many successes in lower categories, as well as my five years in Formula 1, my first victory, the podiums, “he added, reflecting aloud.
“I start a new chapter with Alpine. It is a new beginning », she concluded. Only the years to come will confirm or deny the degree of success of this decision by Gasly in Formula 1, a cyclic category in which all the members of the middle zone of the grid dream of making the leap.