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Alpine’s decision to sign Pierre Gasly for 2023 and beyond came as no surprise to the Formula 1 paddock.
The Frenchman’s departure from Scuderia AlphaTauri was one of its worst-kept secrets, as was his replacement at the Faenza-based squad, Nyck de Vries.
While Gasly’s appointment at Alpine is no great surprise, it does beckon the obvious question; why him?
What does the Frenchman have that others on the market, and potentially at a more affordable price, did not?
Daniel Ricciardo immediately springs to mind, but there are others like Nico Hulkenberg or even the likes of de Vries had it been quick enough.
So what does Gasly have that the others didn’t, and what makes him worth the money?
According to Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer, there were three criteria the team wanted.
“The three things we wanted was naturally speed, a fast driver, one with experience, and also youth at the same time,” he explained.
“Adding those all three things up, there aren’t many people that have all that, and Pierre definitely does.”
Gasly is 25 years old, having made his Formula 1 debut in 2017 with Toro Rosso, as it was then known.
He was rushed into the senior Red Bull team for 2019 but struggled, and was sent back to Toro Rosso mid-season.
It was a harsh move, one which had the potential to end his Formula 1 career, but instead, it arguably made it.
In Brazil at the end of the year, he recorded his best result in F1 to that point with second place. The following year, he won the Italian Grand Prix.
He has been something of a standout performer whose potential has been stymied by a car underserving of his talents.
Only, clearly Red Bull didn’t think so, else he’d have landed the drive alongside Max Verstappen which instead went to Sergio Perez.
At that point, the writing was on the wall; if Gasly was to succeed in Formula 1, he had to leave the Red Bull system, with Alpine offering his first real opportunity.
But why would Alpine make the effort to secure the race winner, especially at what Speedcafe.com understands came with an eight-figure release fee?
The Enstone operation was, in fairness, desperate. It lost Fernando Alonso and Oscar Piastri, both arguably through mismanagement at a senior level.
Szafnauer has publicly carried the can for that. The American is a shrewd operator, and by being the public face during the crisis has done his stock no harm whatsoever, especially within the halls of Renault’s head office.
Indeed, sources have suggested that it was the way in which Szafnauer was pushed into that position that scared off at least one potential driver who was left concerned at what seemed a toxic environment among key staff.
That Alpine was willing to stump up the cash to pay for Gasly’s release serves only to reinforce its desperation.
It could have had Ricciardo for a fraction of what it paid Red Bull, or de Vries, or a handful of others, for that matter.
Two factors seemingly came into it.
The first is that all the drivers on the market were not prepared to drive for Alpine, or, Alpine was not prepared to sign every driver on the market.
From that, we can infer that Ricciardo was not on the list of potential candidates. Which side of the ledger the decision fell is somewhat irrelevant, but an Enstone reunion was unlikely from an early stage – despite it making strong sense.
But that wasn’t one of the team’s stated criteria, but then again nor was nationality.
That Gasly is French will have helped his cause no end.
Alpine, and Renault, are parochial despite their position globally. Renault is a French company and it likes to employ French personnel.
Add in the fact that Gasly ticks all three other boxes – though the question is whether those criteria were written pre- or post-signing is an open question – and it makes a great deal of sense from a nationalistic standpoint.
He is young but has a wealth of experience. He is a race winner. He has strong potential for the future. He was also motivated to leave the clutches of Red Bull.
Weigh that against his rivals.
Excluding Ricciardo, who we’ve already deduced was never a serious consideration, the others offered little competition.
De Vries, for instance, is slightly older than Gasly but has just one grand prix start to his name. He meets two criteria, but not the third.
He’s also Dutch, so there’s an invisible cross against his name there in comparison to Gasly, too.
Hulkenberg is another who meets the experience criteria, and quite probably the speed requirement too. The problem is, he’s a decade older than Gasly and has never stood on an F1 podium.
Beyond that, there are precious few in the market.
Jack Doohan was suggested as a possibility for a time but in reality, the Australian would benefit from another year in Formula 2.
He’s young and fast but doesn’t have the experience. His future is still unwritten though there are strong indications that he’ll be Formula 1 material in future. He’s not ready just yet.
Given that stance, all other Formula 2 drivers could be lumped into that bucket.
Theo Pourchaire is tied up with Alfa Romeo Sauber, Frederik Vesti with Mercedes, Dennis Hauger with Red Bull (as is Liam Lawson), while champion-elect Felipe Drugovich has just signed with Aston Martin. Logan Sargeant is a front-runner for a berth at Williams.
Then who else? There are precious few in the market, meaning Alpine had little choice but to buy out Gasly for its next driver. There was simply nobody else who fit its mould.
There’s just one issue; his fractious relationship with Esteban Ocon.
Childhood friends, the pair fell out during their junior career. They put on the happy family persona for the publicity shots for Gasly’s announcement, but tensions will be raised in the garage next year.
It will be curious to see how the pair interact and react to each other on track. Do they put their own or the team’s ambitions first?
Formula 1 drivers do not need to be friends to work with one another, but team-mates cannot be actively at war with one another; we saw it with Prost and Senna, Hamilton and Alonso, and more recently, Hamilton and Rosberg.
Gasly was the only man to fit Alpine’s criteria for a replacement driver. What we don’t know, and won’t until a few races into 2023, is if that criteria was right.
