Pierre Gasly confirmed for AlphaTauri stay despite Red Bull uncertainty

Pierre Gasly and Dr. Helmut Marko — Photo: © LAT Images

AlphaTauri

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Pierre Gasly confirmed for AlphaTauri stay despite Red Bull uncertainty

Gasly last week suggested his options remained open

Ewan Gale

Saturday 18 June 2022 17:20

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AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost has confirmed Pierre Gasly will "100 per cent" remain with the team next season.

Gasly has been in fine form with the Faenza-based outfit ever since stepping back down to the team from Red Bull midway through the 2019 season, taking victory at the Italian Grand Prix a year later.

The Frenchman was overlooked for a promotion back to the parent team for 2021 when Sergio Perez instead made the move to partner Max Verstappen, with the Mexican recently extending his stay in Milton Keynes to the end of 2024.

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This left Gasly to contemplate his future and in Azerbaijan, he suggested his options were open as to where he could find himself driving in the coming years.

But Tost has swiftly shut down any chance of Gasly leaving his team, insisting: "He will be a driver for Scuderia AlphaTauri in 2023. This is 100 per cent confirmed."

Explaining the process of talks, Tost simply explained: "He has a valid contract, there is nothing more to say."

Gasly's new year struggles "not his fault"

Azerbaijan was the first glimpse Gasly has shown of the performance that garnered praise throughout last year's championship, with his fortunes mixed so far in F1's new era.

But taking the blame away from his driver, Tost said: "Pierre has improved a lot. He is showing fantastic performance.

"Unfortunately, at the beginning of the season we had a lot of reliability issues, for example in Bahrain when the battery caught fire, then there were some other reliability issues.

"It was not his fault, it was coming from the team and I am really happy that at least in Baku, he could show how good he is and I hope that we will provide him with a competitive car for the rest of the season because Pierre has the ability to be at the front.

"It is in the hands of the team to give him a real good competitive car."