Gasly: 'Understeer is different for Fernando, Esteban or Max than it is for me'

After remaining loyal to AlphaTauri for a long time, Pierre Gasly will take up a new challenge at Alpine in 2023. There, the 26-year-old Frenchman says it is paramount that he and his team "speak the same language" in terms of development.

Gasly wants to become familiar with Alpine's way of working as soon as possible, and vice versa. As an example, he cites that his feedback on the car will be completely different from that of other drivers on the grid, including his predecessor Fernando Alonso.

Gasly needs to get used to new team

The Frenchman guards against having too high expectations in his first races for the team. "You don’t know the race team, the technical team, it always takes time to get up to speed," he is quoted by PlanetF1.com. "Maybe sometimes you jump in the car, it all feels very natural, sometimes it doesn’t, it needs a bit of fine-tuning on the way you approach your racing."

The former AlphaTauri driver, therefore, leaves with an open mind towards his new team. "I don’t set any expectations on my side on what I’m going to find there, I just know what I need as a driver, I know the ways I want to do things," continued Gasly, who hopes to match his own working methods with those of the team.

Whereas at his old team, everything went automatically because he knew the way of working inside and out, at Alpine it will take some getting used to from both sides. For example, if Gasly has understeer, he may experience it to a different degree than his teammate or predecessor. "Understeer for Fernando, understeer for Esteban, understeer for Max, understeer for me is different, it doesn’t require the same thing," said Esteban Ocon's brand-new teammate.