Pierre Gasly
Pierre Jean-Jacques Gasly is a French racing driver who competes in Formula One for Alpine. Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix with AlphaTauri.
Born and raised in Normandy, Gasly began competitive kart racing aged 10. Graduating to junior formulae in 2011, Gasly finished third in the French F4 Championship that year with the FFSA Academy. He won his first championship at the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2013 with Tech 1. Gasly then progressed to the GP2 Series, winning the championship in 2016 with Prema amid a close title battle with Antonio Giovinazzi. He moved to Super Formula the following year, finishing runner-up to Hiroaki Ishiura with Mugen, and debuted in Formula E at the New York City ePrix for Renault e.dams.
A member of the Red Bull Junior Team since 2014, Gasly made his Formula One debut with Toro Rosso at the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix, replacing Daniil Kvyat for the remainder of the season. He completed a full-time move to Toro Rosso for, before being promoted to parent team Red Bull in. Gasly was demoted after the, replaced by Alexander Albon; he achieved his maiden podium at the that year with Toro Rosso. In, Gasly took his maiden victory at the whilst driving for the re-branded AlphaTauri. He achieved a third podium for the team at the in. Gasly moved to Alpine for his campaign, scoring his first podium for the team at the, repeating this feat at the rain-affected in.
As of the, Gasly has achieved race win, fastest laps and podiums in Formula One. Gasly is contracted to remain at Alpine until at least the end of the 2028 season.
Early and personal life
Pierre Jean-Jacques Gasly was born on 7 February 1996 in Rouen, France, to father Jean-Jacques Gasly and mother Pascale. Gasly is the youngest of five and has four half brothers: two maternal from his mother's previous marriage, Nicolas Caron and Cyril Caron; and two paternal from his father's previous marriage, Phillipe Gasly and Paul Gasly. Gasly was raised Christian and routinely makes the sign of the cross to bless himself before races.Gasly's family has long been involved in motorsports. His grandfather competed in karting, his grandmother a kart champion, and his father Jean Jacques has also competed in various categories of racing including karting, endurance racing and rallying. His father stopped rallying when he 'fell off mountain' after his co-driver made a mistake reading the pace note. At the age of six, Gasly first experienced karting at a local karting track in Anneville-Ambourville. He was 13 years old when he left Rouen for Le Mans after his commitment for competitive racing.
Gasly grew up alongside Anthoine Hubert; karting with him since the age of seven, being educated at the same private school and having resided together as roommates for several years. He has been close friends with Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon since a young age. However, his relationship with Ocon deteriorated during their karting career. In 2019 he moved to Milan. Besides his native French, Gasly also speaks Italian and English.
Gasly has been dating Francisca Gomes since October 2022. Gomes is a model and influencer and she is signed to the Portugal-based modeling agency Central Models. The couple went official in the start of 2023.
Junior racing career
Karting
Gasly entered competitive karting in 2006 at the age of ten, when he finished fifteenth in the French Minime Championship, before he finished fourth the following year. In 2008 he stepped up to the French Cadet Championship, before moving to the international scene in 2009. He moved into the KF3 category, staying until the end of 2010, when he finished as runner-up in the CIK-FIA European Championship.Formula Renault
In 2011, Gasly made his début in single-seaters, taking part in the French F4 Championship 1.6-litre category. He finished third behind his future Eurocup rivals Matthieu Vaxivière and Andrea Pizzitola with seven podiums, including wins at Spa, Albi and Le Castellet.Gasly moved to the 2-litre Formula Renault machinery in 2012, joining R-Ace GP in the Formula Renault Eurocup. He finished tenth with six point-scoring finishes, including podiums at Spa and the Nürburgring. He also had seven starts in the Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup with the same team, taking a podium at the Nürburgring.
For 2013, Gasly moved to Tech 1 Racing. He took five podiums, as well as victories at Moscow, the Hungaroring and Le Castellet. He held an eleven-point lead over Oliver Rowland into the final meeting at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, and ultimately clinched the title with third and sixth-place finishes; the latter result coming after a collision with Rowland, who received a drive-through penalty as a result.
Gasly jumped to Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2014, where he was hired by Arden under the Red Bull Junior Team development program. He finished the season as runner-up to another Red Bull Junior Carlos Sainz Jr., collecting eight podiums in the seventeen races.
GP2 Series
Gasly made his GP2 Series debut in 2014 at Monza circuit in support of Italian Grand Prix, replacing Caterham Racing driver Tom Dillmann who had commitments at other racing series and was unable to participate in GP2 Series races for that weekend. He then partook in post-season testing, driving for DAMS and signed with the French team to race alongside the British driver Alex Lynn, development driver of Williams F1 Team. Though taking three pole positions and four podiums, Gasly experienced an uneven season, including causing collisions in Bahrain, Spa and Yas Marina, which saw him finish eighth, two places behind teammate Lynn.Gasly switched to newcomers Prema Powerteam alongside 2015 European Formula 3 runner-up and GP2 rookie Antonio Giovinazzi for 2016. He went on to become the GP2 Series champion that season.
Formula One career
In December 2013, it was announced that Gasly would be inducted into the Red Bull Junior Team for the 2014 Formula One season alongside future GP2 Series teammate Alex Lynn and future Scuderia Toro Rosso teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. Gasly's first experience in Formula One machinery came in May 2015 at the in-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. He drove the Toro Rosso STR10 on the first day of the test and the Red Bull RB11 on the second day, recording 203 laps in total. He later tested the RB11 again at the Red Bull Ring in June and was officially named Red Bull Racing's reserve driver in September. Gasly continued testing for Red Bull and Toro Rosso during the and seasons.Toro Rosso (2017–2018)
2017
Gasly made his Formula One race debut at the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix with Toro Rosso, replacing Daniil Kvyat. He finished the Malaysian and Japanese Grands Prix outside the points. Gasly was expected to take Carlos Sainz Jr.'s seat at the after Sainz left for Renault, but he was forced to miss the race due to a clash with the final round of the 2017 Super Formula Championship. He returned to the team for the, partnering with Brendon Hartley after the team decided to drop Kvyat from the Red Bull programme.2018
Gasly and Hartley became full-time Toro Rosso drivers for the season. At the, Gasly qualified sixth but was promoted to fifth on the grid after a penalty for Lewis Hamilton. He finished the race in fourth place after Kimi Räikkönen retired, earning his first points finish in Formula One. A week later in China, he crashed into teammate Hartley in what the two confessed as being a 'miscommunication'. Gasly recorded four more points finishes during the season, including seventh place at Monaco and sixth place at Hungary. He ended the season in fifteenth place in the championship with 29 points, comfortably ahead of Hartley's total of four points.Red Bull (2019)
2019
Gasly was contracted to drive for Red Bull Racing for the season, partnering Max Verstappen following the departure of Daniel Ricciardo to Renault. Gasly qualified seventeenth at his first race with the team, the and failed to score in the race. He again failed to qualify in the top ten at the following, and retired from sixth place with a driveshaft issue at the. He scored points at the following six races but finished a lap behind the leaders at the Canadian, French and Austrian Grands Prix, the latter of which was won by Verstappen. His best result with Red Bull Racing came at the where he finished fourth after Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel collided ahead. At the, Gasly retired after colliding with Alex Albon's Toro Rosso in an attempt to overtake for sixth place.Gasly came under increasing pressure at the, where he finished sixth having been lapped by Verstappen. Despite Gasly's poor results, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko stated that the team intended to keep Gasly until the end of the season. At this stage of the season, Gasly was sixth in the drivers' championship with 63 points. Verstappen, meanwhile, had recorded 181 points, two race wins, five podium finishes, and one pole position.
Return to Toro Rosso / AlphaTauri (2019–2022)
Ahead of the, Gasly was demoted back to junior team Toro Rosso with Alex Albon taking his place at Red Bull. Red Bull stated that the swap was made in order to "make an informed decision as to who will drive alongside Max in 2020", with Horner remarking that "we desperately need realising more of the potential of the car."During the remainder of the season at Toro Rosso, partnering with Daniil Kvyat, Gasly achieved five points finishes, including ninth place at his first race back at the team at the. His best result came at the, where he qualified in seventh place and took advantage of retirements from Valtteri Bottas and both Ferrari drivers, as well as a collision between Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon, to finish the race in second place after holding off Hamilton in a straight drag to the finish line. This marked the first podium finish of Gasly's Formula One career, Toro Rosso's best race result since the 2008 Italian Grand Prix, and Honda's first 1–2 finish since the 1991 Japanese Grand Prix. On his cool-down lap, Gasly remarked over the radio: "This is the best day of my life". He ended the season seventh in the drivers' championship with 95 points; during his nine races back at Toro Rosso, he scored 32 points compared to 10 for teammate Kvyat in the same period.