Gasly: "Didn't see Vettel and Hamilton as heroes at first"

Pierre Gasly has had a rather bizarre F1 career so far. First he did great at Toro Rosso, then he was promoted to Red Bull, only to be criticised for his lacklustre performance and was eventually relegated. Last season he rebounded fantastically, with his win at Monza as the highlight. This year isn't much different.

Where teammate and F1 rookie Yuki Tsunoda is still having extreme trouble with the car, Gasly is the obvious leader of AlphaTauri and has been doing well in the points again this season. In an interview on Red Bull's site, he talks about where he gets his motivation from.

"In everything I do, I don't look for the motivation in someone else, I look for it in myself. I want to challenge myself, test myself. My goal is not to look like this or that driver." 

He is aware that he is driving in the same sport as legends Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, who dominated the sport on Gasly's debut in 2017. Yet the Frenchman initially viewed them differently to others.

"When I started competing with people like Hamilton, Vettel and others, I didn't see them as heroes. But I like to observe and I believe you can always learn from others, whether it's in F1 or any other order of life. It can be in other sports or in business. Why is that person successful? What did you do to achieve your goals?" said the Frenchman.

Victory Monza 2020

Gasly likes nothing better than to lead and win. This was exactly what he did in Italy last year to everyone's amazement. "There is no better feeling than leading a race, something I experienced in my flesh at Monza last year. You go first, you have no one in front. At that moment you have only one thing in mind: to attack. It brought back good memories of Formula 2 and Super Formula. The fundamental is that you can control the GP." The chances are slim that he will get that chance this year, but that was also the case last year. Perhaps he will be able to experience this feeling again in 2021.