F1 star reveals call from PRESIDENT after first race win

Max Verstappen with Pierre Gasly — Photo: © LAT Images

F1 News & Gossip

F1 star reveals call from PRESIDENT after first race win

The call came after the performance of his career

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Sunday 3 September 2023 12:57

Pierre Gasly has revealed that he received a phone call from French President Emannuel Macron after his stunning Italian Grand Prix victory in 2020.

The Frenchman made use of a red flag and Lewis Hamilton's 10 second time penalty to get ahead of the rest of the grid at the event three years ago, fending off the McLaren of Carlos Sainz at the end of the race to claim his first (and to this date only) Formula 1 race victory.

It also provided the AlphaTauri team (formerly known as Toro Rosso) only their second ever race win, with both of them coming at their home race at Monza.

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Now, as he heads back to the track that provided him with the best moment of his career so far, this time with his new Alpine team, Gasly has revealed in an interview with Gazzetta how much that day changed his life.

"There are many images that come back to my mind, I enjoyed every moment of that afternoon, it was very intense. But certainly the first is when I got on the podium: I had dreamed of that moment a thousand times as a child," he revealed.

"The second, the phone call from Macron: my phone rang, I didn't know the number and I didn't want to answer. When I heard "Hi, I'm Macron, your president" it was incredible, something you don't expect to happen on a normal working day.

"Today, it happens that people on the street recognise me. Even the other teams have started to look at me in a different way: it's my favourite GP."

Recent form a sign of better things to come at Alpine?

Gasly has been struggling to find his feet with his new Alpine team

Gasly himself admitted earlier in the season that he had struggled to settle in at his new team, with a raft of changes within the team and an underperforming car not helping that transition.

However, recently his performances have improved, and a podium in the sprint race at the Belgium GP was backed up at the next race in Zandvoort with a podium in the main race.

Gasly now sits in tenth in the world championship, a point ahead of team-mate Esteban Ocon with nine races left. However, both had a shambolic qualifying session in Italy, failing to make it out of Q1.

"Everyone races to win, not everyone succeeds: it's a unique feeling," he admitted. "And Monza will always be a special place, the best of my career. I will always be linked to that circuit and going back there is always nice. The goal is to repeat it one day that result."