Pierre Gasly recently sat down for a chat with San Antonio Spurs legend, Tony Parker. The duo had a candid discussion about Gasly’s rise to the very pinnacle of motorsport. While reflecting on some of his early days, the French racing ace termed them as ‘difficult to accept’ and filled with ‘politics’. Gasly recalled the lack of opportunities he had despite winning GP2 in 2016. Since he won in GP2, the next logical step was F1. However, he had to wait till the Malaysian GP in 2017 to make his F1 debut.
“There is a lot of politics. I think I had to work my way to F1 in a pretty difficult fashion,” began the 27-year-old. The Frenchman then added, “I was in F2, which is sort of like the second division. So, you gotta win to make it to Formula 1. I won the championship and still didn’t make it to Formula 1!”
You saw him make the circuit out of Red Bull cans a couple of days ago, but did you see Pierre Gasly’s overtake of the year back in GP2 2016 through Eau Rouge?
>> https://t.co/X7gfTdpRor pic.twitter.com/hvflXn60d4
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) December 7, 2018
Gasly admitted that competition to even make it to the sport is very brutal. Since there are only 20 seats on the grid, there are a lot of rising stars who don’t even get to make it to the grandest stage of motorsport.
With hindsight and first-hand experience, Gasly revealed that winning the junior categories isn’t enough. To make it to F1, one must bide their time while always staying on top of their game to ensure they survive. “You cannot have an off day,” concluded the 2020 Italian GP winner.
Pierre Gasly dissects the DNA of Formula 1
Pierre Gasly lamented the fact that the drivers do not get the same cars in F1. The Frenchman explained how the drivers compete in “spec” cars in the junior formulas, but in F1, the driver isn’t the most important factor any more. The car matters as much as the driver or even sometimes more.
While Gasly believes that such disparity in terms of performance adds to the beauty of the sport, on the flip side, he did divulge the frustration when a team tends to dominate. “When there’s a domination, the ranking is usually ‘two drivers from the same team, two other drivers…'”.
A one-eyed Pierre grabs a solid P7 in Sao Paulo 😜#BrazilGP #F1 @PierreGASLY pic.twitter.com/sOkioHuCpz
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 6, 2023
Gasly’s thoughts can be summarized by this adage, “Right place, right time.” However, even Gasly knows it doesn’t always work out like that given his own personal struggles to make it to F1.
