Pierre Gasly does now know where his former team Scuderia AlphaTauri will be in the pecking order during the 2023 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season, with the Faenza-based squad set for a concept change with its AT04 chassis.
Gasly will move to the BWT Alpine F1 Team in 2023 and will be replaced by Dutchman Nyck de Vries, with the team enduring an extremely difficult 2022 season that saw them slip to ninth in the Constructors’ Championship, ahead only of Williams Racing.
The Frenchman scored only twenty-three points during 2022 on his way to fourteenth in the Drivers’ Championship, with only six top ten finishes, the best of which was a fifth place in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in June.
Despite this, and the fact he is moving away from AlphaTauri to join Alpine, Gasly is confident the team will come back stronger in 2023, and he is expecting the AT04 to be the best car they have developed.
Gasly hopes Alpine can improve on their fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship from 2022 next season, but he knows it is always difficult to predict the order from one year to another in Formula 1, particularly in the extremely close midfield.
“In this sport it’s so difficult to know what’s going to happen from one year to another,” Gasly is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com. “We were top of the midfield last season, this year we were back of the midfield and next season, who knows what’s going to happen?
“Maybe AlphaTauri, and I know they’re changing completely the concept of the car, will be back in the fight. It’s difficult to say.
“I think what’s important is just to work and prepare ourselves the best way possible for next year. And, and yeah, crossing my fingers that the Alpine package is going to be even stronger than it was this year.”
Gasly revealed that AlphaTauri engineers sounded confident about their 2023 prospects, and he expects them to be moving up from their lowly 2022 position next season.
“Hopefully it changes for good, my position,” Gasly said of his own move to Alpine. “But at the same time, you never know. We talked about it with the [AlphaTauri] guys as well.
“They tell me that their next year’s car is the best one they have ever had, and they’re going to be fighting at the front! And it’s normal, and then when you speak around the paddock everybody is making huge steps forward and God knows what’s going to happen.”
Gasly hopes to be in a position to fight for podiums during his first season with Alpine, with the Frenchman looking to add to his one victory and two additional podiums he achieved with his former team.
“I hope we’re fighting at the front, maybe we’re fighting for podiums, for race wins, or for top five,” Gasly added. “Or it could be a more challenging season.
“Usually teams have different designers and they’re switching designers from one season to another. So there is still some carryover from year to year, but yeah, there could be some surprises. So we’ll find this out at the start of next year.
“Alpine has had a fantastic season, finishing fourth in the championship, beating McLaren. So they clearly have a good package. And next target is the big three.
“So we’ll try to push as hard as possible, but I’m confident there are going to be amazing results to achieve with the team.”
