Pierre Gasly reflects on his ‘crazy’ F1 career after the Italian GP win

The surprising F1 triumph for Gasly and AlphaTauri ends the monopoly of the big three on race days after seven years; “After everything that happened to me in the last 18 months, I couldn’t have hoped for a better way to get my first win.”

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly ended the long winning streak of victories for three Formula 1 teams, missed a congratulatory call from the president of France and then reflected on the “crazy ride” of the last 18 months of his career. race after giving a real surprise in the races by winning the Italian. Big prize.

With a 250-1 shot for his first career win from 10th on the grid before the race, Gasly became the first driver outside of F1’s recognized greats (Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari). to stand on the top step of the podium for seven years and an astonishing 147 races.

F1’s biggest teams had shared every race win with each other, including the first 128 of the current era of the V6 engine, amid an unprecedented period of Sunday supremacy since the former Lotus team won at the GP of Australia 2013.

AlphaTauri, then known as Toro Rosso, had only won once before, also at Monza, with a young Sebastian Vettel in 2008. A dozen years later, the Red Bull junior team’s second win with Gasly was possibly even more unexpected.

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AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost praised Pierre Gasly after the Frenchman claimed the first victory in the Italian Grand Prix race.

“I’m still struggling to realize what happened to us,” said the young Frenchman, who was just three months old the last time a French rider, Olivier Panis, at Monaco 1996, won a Grand Prix.

“My first victory in Formula 1 … a couple of months ago I got my first podium in Brazil and then today is my first victory, in Monza with AlphaTauri, which is an Italian team.

“It couldn’t have been better and we worked so hard, day by day, race after race, after everything that happened to me in the last 18 months, I couldn’t have hoped for a better way to get my first win.”

Gasly’s tumultuous path to being an F1 race winner

As for character testing, Gasly has had to deal with a lot in those 18 months you mention.

After an inaugural year in F1 with Toro Rosso in 2018, he earned an immediate promotion to the Red Bull core team alongside Max Verstappen for the following season when Daniel Ricciardo left for Renault.

But the move to the big moment was far from a smooth transition.

Two crashes in preseason testing set the tone for a difficult baptism and Gasly’s early-season form inevitably compared to that of Verstappen, who won two races and finished in the top five in all events through the summer break. .

In contrast, Gasly scored just two top-five finishes and never bothered on the podium, with his one-lap deficit with his teammate in qualifying, a proven F1 barometer of performance and potential, especially dazzling.

Despite public assurances from Red Bull bosses that he would be given more time, he was still demoted to the junior team during the August summer break with Alex Albon, now he himself turned heads in Gasly’s previous seat at Toro Rosso in his. rookie year, promoted instead.

After just 38 starts, the initial promise of the Frenchman’s likeable F1 career was in danger of being lost.

Gasly finished in the points in his first comeback race with Toro Rosso at Spa, but the weekend was tragically overshadowed by the death of his compatriot and longtime friend Anthoine Hubert in that weekend’s F2 race.

Still accepting defeat, he finished the season strong and an inaugural podium was the reward in the penultimate round in Brazil, coming home second behind Verstappen after a typically eventful Interlagos race.

Top three finishers Max Verstappen from the Netherlands and Red Bull Racing, Pierre Gasly from France and Scuderia Toro Rosso and Lewis Hamilton from Great Britain and Mercedes GP celebrate on the podium during the Brazilian F1 Grand Prix at the Jose Car Autodromo

Gasly has been one of the most impressive and consistent performers this season and had already put on several eye-catching performances in qualifying sessions and races.

In an emotional first return to Spa-Francorchamps this past weekend since Hubert’s passing, Gasly was voted the Fan Day driver with a thrilling run to eighth place, a performance that included a sensational move from Sergio. Pérez in Eau Rouge.

So Gasly certainly had a lot to ponder when he took a moment alone after the trophy and champagne presentations to sit on the edge of the podium and collect his thoughts.

“I had so many things on my mind. I know these kinds of moments are happening very fast,” he said. Sky Sports F1 during The Notebook.

“From Brazil last year afterwards, I thought I wished I had more time on the podium just to enjoy those kinds of emotions even more.

“It was amazing. I just wanted to take the time to find out what was happening to me because it was incredible. I had a lot of thoughts running through my mind and I wanted to take my mind to enjoy that.”

Not that it can’t be the best podium experience at Monza.

“I wish there were thousands of people there and all the Tifosi,” Gasly said.

“Everyone says Monza is probably the craziest place to win because the Tifosi are so passionate here. I wish I could have felt that energy, but there were already so many emotions that it was a fantastic moment.”

A moment warmly acknowledged by colleagues within F1 as well as important fans abroad.

Revealing that he needed to return a missed call to his country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, Gasly also reserved a special thank you for his Italian team.

“Franz [Tost, AlphaTauri’s team boss] He told me ‘we have won it in the wet with Seb and now in the dry with you’. It’s crazy. I’m very happy to have given these two podiums and to have won my first race with these guys because they have been giving me so much. “

After a day like Sunday in Monza, the feeling is surely mutual.

Tributes to Gasly, the 109th Formula 1 race winner