Pierre Gasly: From Rouen Karting to the Monza Win and Alpine

Pierre Gasly is a French driver who has moved through Toro Rosso, Red Bull and AlphaTauri before settling at Alpine. A 2020 victory at Monza for AlphaTauri is the highlight of his record so far, but his career has been defined by recovery from a demotion and a run of difficult seasons.

Who is Pierre Gasly?

Pierre Gasly is a French racing driver from Normandy who competes in Formula One for Alpine. He took his first victory at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix for AlphaTauri, and as of 2026 he has one win, one pole position and five podiums. His career has taken him through Red Bull and AlphaTauri to Alpine.

Gasly's life began in Rouen on 7 February 1996. His family had a long involvement in motorsport, with relatives who raced karts and rallies, and he began competitive karting at the age of ten in 2006.

A demotion, a GP2 title won under pressure and a maiden win in Italy: a career built on rebounds.

How did Gasly rise through the junior ranks?

Gasly moved into single-seaters in 2011, finishing third in the French F4 Championship with seven podiums. His first title came in 2013, when he won the Eurocup crown for Tech 1, and he went on to take the GP2 Series championship with Prema in 2016.

In 2008 he moved up to the French Cadet Championship, and by 2010 he had become runner-up in the CIK-FIA European KF3 Championship. Gasly was thirteen when he moved from Rouen to Le Mans, as racing became his main focus.

In 2014 he moved into Formula Renault 3.5 with Arden, finishing runner-up to Carlos Sainz Jr, a fellow Red Bull junior, and collecting eight podiums in seventeen races.

The GP2 title did not come easily. Red Bull's junior team boss Helmut Marko made clear that Gasly would have to win the title or be dropped, and the team cut its financial contribution to $500,000, half the cost of a GP2 seat at a frontrunning team.

His GP2 debut had come at Monza in 2014, when he stepped in for another driver with commitments elsewhere. He then raced for DAMS alongside Alex Lynn, taking three pole positions and four podiums, but collisions in Bahrain, Spa and Yas Marina made for an uneven season.

What did Gasly achieve in Super Formula and Formula E?

In 2017 Gasly joined Team Mugen in the Super Formula Championship and won two races in a row, but the final round at Suzuka was cancelled because of a typhoon. He ended the season as runner-up in the standings, half a point short of the title.

His single Formula E outing came in 2017 for Renault e.dams at the New York ePrix, where he replaced Sebastien Buemi. He recovered from 19th on the grid to finish seventh in the first race, and he nearly reached the podium in the second.

How did Gasly's Formula One debut go?

His first laps in a Formula One car came at a May 2015 test in Barcelona, where he drove the Toro Rosso STR10 and the Red Bull RB11 and completed 203 laps in total. In September that year he took on a reserve role with the Red Bull team.

Gasly made his first Formula One start in Malaysia in 2017, taking over from Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso. He finished the Malaysian and Japanese races outside the points, but he had shown enough to earn a full-time seat for 2018, in a team that served as a development stepping stone for Red Bull.

In 2018 he and Brendon Hartley were full-time drivers. In Bahrain a penalty for Lewis Hamilton moved Gasly up to fifth on the grid, and he came home fourth once Kimi Raikkonen had retired, earning his first points.

He ended 2018 fifteenth in the championship with 29 points, ahead of Hartley's four, and he added more points finishes, including seventh at Monaco.

Why was Gasly demoted from Red Bull in 2019?

Gasly was promoted to Red Bull Racing for 2019, partnering Max Verstappen, but his results were poor and he was demoted back to Toro Rosso before the Belgian Grand Prix. Alexander Albon took his Red Bull seat, and the team said it needed a clearer picture of who would partner Verstappen in 2020.

His form at Red Bull was difficult. He qualified seventeenth on debut for the team in Melbourne and then scored nothing. He again missed the top ten in Bahrain, and a driveshaft problem ended his race from sixth at Azerbaijan. He also finished a lap behind the leaders at several events. At Silverstone his best Red Bull result arrived when he finished fourth, after a clash between Verstappen and Vettel further up the track.

By the time of the Hungarian race, Gasly had finished sixth after being lapped by Verstappen, and he sat sixth in the drivers' standings with 63 points. Verstappen had 181 points, two race wins, five podiums and a pole position by then.

Back at Toro Rosso, he finished second at the Brazilian Grand Prix from seventh on the grid, which was his first Formula One podium. It was Toro Rosso's strongest finish since Monza in 2008, and the first one-two for Honda since 1991 at Suzuka.

He finished the season seventh in the championship with 95 points. After returning to Toro Rosso for nine races, he scored 32 points, while Kvyat managed 10 over the same stretch.

How did Gasly win the 2020 Italian Grand Prix?

Gasly won the 2020 Italian Grand Prix for AlphaTauri, the first win of his Formula One career. An early pit stop helped him climb to third, and when Hamilton came in for a penalty and Stroll slipped back at the restart, Gasly took over at the front.

The win made him the 109th different race winner in Formula One. The win also made him the first Frenchman to win since Olivier Panis, whose victory at Monaco came 24 years earlier.

The result sparked talk of a return to Red Bull, since Albon had finished only fifteenth. Gasly said he was ready for such a move, but AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost praised the race and dismissed the idea for the near future.

How did Gasly's AlphaTauri years develop?

Gasly stayed with the rebranded AlphaTauri team in 2020, finishing tenth in the championship with 75 points. In 2021 he scored a third-place finish at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and ended the season ninth with 110 points, his highest tally in a single season.

After his win, Gasly scored points at three more races, including fifth at the Portuguese Grand Prix, before a coolant leak ended his race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, where he had qualified a season-best fourth.

In 2021 he started fifth at the opening race in Bahrain, but he collided with Daniel Ricciardo and retired.

The Azerbaijan podium was his third in Formula One. Late in that race he was helped by a tyre failure for Verstappen and a mistake by Hamilton, and he held on against Leclerc at the end.

The 2022 season was harder. He finished fourteenth with 23 points, and a Belgian Grand Prix recovery from the pit lane to ninth was one of the few bright spots.

In Azerbaijan he finished fifth, ending a run of races without points. At Austria he qualified tenth but collided with Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, finishing fifteenth.

At the Japanese Grand Prix he criticised the use of a recovery tractor in wet conditions, calling it disrespectful to the memory of Jules Bianchi. He then received a penalty for speeding under the red flag and was demoted to eighteenth.

AlphaTauri confirmed in June 2022 that he would stay for 2023, but Alpine began targeting him over the summer, and the move was announced in October.

What did the move to Alpine bring?

Gasly joined Alpine for 2023, alongside his former karting rival Esteban Ocon. He scored points in his first season and finished eleventh with 62 points, a place and four points clear of Ocon. The Dutch Grand Prix brought his first Alpine podium.

At Zandvoort he started twelfth and gained from an early switch to intermediates. He crossed the line fourth, then gained a place from a penalty for Sergio Perez, which promoted him onto the podium, his first in over two years.

In 2024 he added a third-place finish at the rain-affected Sao Paulo Grand Prix after starting thirteenth. Across the final six rounds he collected 34 points, which lifted him to tenth in the championship.

In 2025 he scored all of Alpine's points, 22 in total, across the 24 rounds. His contract with Alpine now runs until at least the end of 2028.

What were Gasly's highlights in 2026?

At Monaco in 2026 Gasly was briefly given third place after a timekeeping review, but a pit lane speeding penalty had already dropped him to seventh. The podium was later taken away after an appeal. At the Italian Grand Prix he took his maiden pole position, the first pole for a French driver since Jean Alesi in 1997.

Earlier in the season he finished tenth in Australia, keeping his former teammate Ocon behind him in a close battle for points.

What are Gasly's main career figures?

Gasly's career figures show steady progress from junior championships to Formula One wins and podiums. The table lists his main results, from his junior titles to his race win, pole and podium totals, and his current contract. Several entries are current to the 2026 Singapore Grand Prix.