Gasly at the center of the project
Summer in Formula 1 has always meant engines off and an active silly season, with negotiations for possible driver changes taking precedence over technical discussions about cars and engines. However, the Alpine team, at least regarding their lead driver Pierre Gasly, is calm: the French driver is one of the few on the grid to have a contract valid not only for the 2027 season but even for 2028.
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This is concrete proof of how much the Enstone team believes in him, despite #10 being one of those drivers who in his career has never had the chance to have a top-tier car, excluding the first six months of 2019 at the wheel of Red Bull, which almost ruined his career.
In a long interview given to the podcast The Race Business, Alpine team boss, Flavio Briatore, spoke precisely about Gasly and the team, reiterating how drivers are currently the least of his worries. “At the moment my priority is to build a racing team. That is the priority. After that, I believe the drivers we have are good. If we talk about the top drivers, I believe Pierre is among the top six best drivers – emphasized the Italian manager – now we just need a better car, more confidence in the people here at the factory“.
The role of Mercedes
For Briatore, who in his very long F1 career has won with legendary champions like Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso, the driver takes on a fundamental role only when the whole team is already at the best possible level: “The driver becomes crucial when having that couple of tenths less makes a big difference. But why not [could it be] Pierre? Why not the drivers we have? The same goes for Franco [Colapinto]. He is very young, still in his first experiences in F1 and from last year to this year he has improved by 100%. You cannot know what the development of a young driver will be. We will see in the future“.
A key point in the recent history of the ‘Enstone team’ was the switch from the Renault power unit to the Mercedes one. A controversial decision, but one Briatore claims: “On a scale from zero to ten we are now about six and a half and the further we go, the harder it gets. But we have an excellent relationship with Mercedes. We have the Mercedes power unit and this completely changes the feeling for everyone here. We know we are, at least in one aspect, at the best possible level“.
