It’s safe to say that reports suggesting that Pierre Gasly is set to be announced as an Alpine F1 Team driver are more likely to be true than not, after it was discovered that the Frenchman liked a hilarious meme on Instagram, which appears to be a dig at Red Bull.
It has been reported ever since Fernando Alonso announced that he’d be leaving Alpine that the Enstone-based team were interested in Gasly.
The Frenchman has made it no secret that he feels like he deserves a better seat than AlphaTauri, whom he’s personally taken to new heights.
Despite having been in Formula 1 since 2018, Gasly has only ever raced under the Red Bull family, whether that be at AlphaTauri or Red Bull.
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Gasly became a Red Bull junior driver back in 2014 and has remained as part of the programme ever since, a partnership that has seen him go from Formula Renault 3.5, to GP2 (known now as Formula 2), to Super Formula in Japan and then, of course, to Formula 1.
In his debut F1 season for AlphaTauri who at the time were known as Toro Rosso, the French driver excelled.
He claimed five points finishes in his full debut campaign, which included, a fourth-place finish at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Following on from his strong season and the departure of Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull, Gasly was promoted to the Austrian team, where he certainly found the going significantly tougher alongside Max Verstappen.
The 26-year-old was clearly under monumental pressure to perform, and ultimately failed to claim a podium finish from the opening 12 rounds of the season.
Despite not claiming a podium, he did finish in the points at nine of the 12 Grand Prix’s, with his best result being fourth at the British Grand Prix.
Following the 2019 Hungarian Grand Prix, Gasly felt the full wrath of being an underperforming Red Bull driver, as he was dropped by the team for AlphaTauri’s Alex Albon.
Albon took Gasly’s place, with Gasly taking Albon’s place back at Red Bull’s sister side, where it quickly became evident that the driver had something to prove.
He returned to his former side better than ever before, and astonishingly claimed his first F1 podium at the Brazilian Grand Prix, where he finished second.
Gasly went from strength to strength in 2020, very much as the team’s lead driver.
He claimed his first F1 victory and the team’s first since 2008 at the Italian Grand Prix, after an excellent late race duel with Carlos Sainz.
The 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix was the Frenchman’s most recent podium, as he continues to be one of the strongest drivers in the midfield.
It has also appeared to be Gasly’s goal to return to Red Bull; however, Red Bull advisor Dr.Helmut Marko and boss Christian Horner, have seemingly never been interested in re-promoting the Frenchman.
With Sergio Pérez now secured at Red Bull until the end of 2024, it looks like Gasly will never get the opportunity to prove that he does have what it takes to race for a frontrunning team, with Marko happy for him to leave the Red Bull family.
Gasly has always been somewhat the forgotten child, who has performed admirably but has never received the praise he deserves.
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According to Canal Plus, Alpine could announce Gasly as their new driver this weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix, with the side potentially having to pay AlphaTauri to cancel Gasly’s 2023 contract.
With the announcement imminent, Gasly has been caught having liked a meme on Instagram from American series The Office, which is the US-version of the original British series.
With the meme reading ‘My boss thanking me for being loyal’, whilst shaking hands with an employee with the caption ‘Me who has been applying for other jobs but keeps getting rejected’, it appears to be a dig at Red Bull for all the times Gasly has inquired about returning to the top side.