Pierre Gasly has revisited his bruising half-season at Red Bull with the sort of clarity that comes after a few hard years and a fresh horizon. Calling the 2019 stint “sad,” the Frenchman says he “had no support” and wasn’t “given the tools to perform” in a team built—quite understandably—around Max Verstappen.
Gasly’s rise through Red Bull’s pipeline was textbook at first: GP2 champion in 2016, Super Formula runner-up a year later, then a late-2017 debut at Toro Rosso. Six months into his first full F1 season, he got the call. With Daniel Ricciardo heading to Renault for 2019, Red Bull chose Gasly over Carlos Sainz to partner Verstappen.
The leap was steep. The reality was harsher. Gasly never found a foothold across those opening 12 races of 2019, his best result a fourth place at Silverstone. He was sent back to Toro Rosso over the summer break.
“I’m not going to lie, it was sad,” Gasly said, reflecting on that stretch. He described a scenario few rookies can navigate: a team entirely geared to its title-chasing spearhead, and an inexperienced engineer parachuted in from Formula E for his side of the garage. “I wasn’t really given the tools to perform,” he said. “They were not happy, but I wasn’t happy either because I could see I couldn’t show my potential.”
That Red Bull drive has become the reference point in his story—first of several teammates who’ve struggled to breathe next to Verstappen’s fire. The Dutchman’s results justify the team’s focus. The collateral, for Gasly, was confidence and rhythm that never had a chance to set.
The comeback, though, has defined him more than the demotion. Returned to the junior team, Gasly rebuilt the way racers do: speed, consistency, and one famous Sunday at Monza in 2020 where he kept his head while everyone else lost theirs and won a grand prix on merit. No proper route back to Red Bull opened up, and by 2023 he’d left the program to join Alpine—where he’s stood on the podium twice.
Fast-forward to the end of 2025 and the mood at Enstone could hardly be lighter on the scoreboard. Alpine wound up bottom of the Constructors’ table, a grim close to this rules cycle. But Gasly insists the real reset isn’t coming until the regulations flip and the team swaps power units for 2026. Alpine will end its Renault works era and run Mercedes power under the overhauled chassis and engine framework. Inside the factory, that’s been framed as opportunity, not capitulation.
“I’m very optimistic on the car we’re putting together,” Gasly said. “Chassis side, engine-wise, I think everything is looking good. We’re hitting all our targets, so very excited for ’26.”
There’s good reason for him to talk like that. Gasly has always been a momentum driver—give him a platform that’s predictable and a team that’s pointed in one direction, and the results tend to follow. Alpine needs exactly that after a downbeat 2025: a stable, efficient package and an immediate step in power unit performance as the new era dawns.
The sting of 2019 still lingers in how Gasly talks about it, but it also reads like fuel. The line between a career detour and a defining derailment, in F1, is often one good car. Red Bull was a missed connection. Alpine 2026 is the next train arriving.
