Why Pierre Gasly's F1 future is related to Alpine

Pierre Gasly has been the hero of the less and less competitive Alpine A525 this season, which makes you wonder why he would sign up for three more years.

A remark that people often wrongly credit to Albert Einstein says that doing the same thing over and over again in the hope of getting a different result is insane.

So you might be wondering why Pierre Gasly, a grand prix winner who is still very competitive, would sign a three-year contract extension with a team that has had a lot of management changes and hasn't been able to field a competitive car for almost 10 years.

There are two parts to the answer. The first and most obvious one is that there was no other competitive seat open. McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes are all taken (save for signing contracts). Just thinking about Red Bull must bring back bad memories. Williams and Sauber are also set for the near future, right behind this group.

Even though this season began off okay and then became worse, mostly because Alpine switched to developing for 2026 early on, there are still reasons to be hopeful. The technical team is now steady under David Sanchez, a former Ferrari engineer who joined last year. Flavio Briatore is in charge of management, and Renault, the parent company, has said it would stay committed to the F1 project.

"Of course I did [look elsewhere]," Gasly stated after the Italian Grand Prix last weekend. "It's just what you do." It wasn't obvious what to do based on how well things were going at the start of the year. There is some thought behind it.

"But I really think this is a very good choice. You just have to wait and show that you can do well next season.

"I think it's important to be clear and show that I'm committed on both sides." From the team to me and from me to the team.

"And I'm in a much better place now that I'm working with the group of folks I'm with. I think it's quite evident. I believe that the contract extension will be good for everyone on the squad.

It has been almost ten years since Renault came back to F1 as both a team owner and an engine supplier. This was arranged quickly by F1 "ringmaster" Bernie Ecclestone. Renault had owned the Enstone-based company before and won the constructors' championship twice with it. However, Genii Capital and its leader, Gerard Lopez, who is now president of the French football clubs Boavista and Bordeaux, which have also seen their fortunes decline, were terrible at running the company.

Not only had there been little money put into keeping up with the latest technology, but many of the best engineers had gotten tired of worrying about whether they would get paid and had moved on to other jobs. Then, Renault's mistakes made it even harder to develop the team and its infrastructure, and they never seemed to get the hang of how long it would take to compete in F1.

The constant change of top management over the past five seasons didn't help the team's reputation as being in a chronic crisis, but things have settled down a bit under the controversial figure of Briatore.

Steve Nielsen, who had been with the team for ten years before leaving during the Genii era, is now back as managing director. He started his new job before the Italian Grand Prix.

Gasly agreed to give up development on the 2025 project for the 2026 project early on, and he is delighted with how things are going behind the scenes, including the advent of a new driver-in-loop simulator.

Another possible benefit for 2026 is a Mercedes power unit. This is because Briatore made the controversial choice to stop F1 development at Renault's Viry-Chatillon factory. People in the paddock say that Mercedes' initiative is the most advanced, just like the launch of hybrid powertrains in 2014. So Alpine will probably see an instant boost in performance.

Gasly added, "Of course, I didn't have to rush on my side." "I think Flavio will convince me to move forward and see the team's potential." And like I mentioned, there are reasons we aren't doing well this year.

"I wholeheartedly supported the team at the beginning of the year when they opted to stop development far earlier than other teams. This is clearly a bit unpleasant right now. But I think it's the best thing to do for the next season and for my goals in Formula 1 going forward.

"I have complete faith in the group of people we have in Enstone. We have some good new hires. In terms of organization and the way we do things, I think this squad is probably in the best shape I've ever seen.

"We're not changing anything about this year's car on purpose so that we have the best chance of winning next season."