Alpha Tauri have confirmed that lead driver Pierre Gasly will stay with the Italian team for the 2023 season, which is his last season as a contracted Red Bull driver.

Alpha Tauri boss Franz Tost had said in Canada that it was “100% confirmed” that Gasly would be staying with the Italian outfit for 2023, and this was later corroborated by the team with Tost declaring: “We are really pleased to confirm that Pierre stays with us in 2023. He is definitely in the group of the best and most competitive drivers in F1 and has proven his abilities during all the time he has spent with us.”

“Undoubtedly, Pierre can play a major role in the team having a successful season next year and it will be down to us to provide him with a competitive car, so that he can continue to deliver excellent results.”

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This ends speculation about the Frenchman’s immediate future-  speculation that was triggered when Red Bull effectively ended any hopes Gasly might have had of getting a second promotion to partner Max Verstappen in the Red Bull by awarding Sergio Perez a contract extension that will see him race for the Bulls until the 2024 season at least. 

This signals the close of a protracted saga that started in 2019 when Gasly was given the chance to race for Red Bull- a chance that lasted 12 underwhelming races, and ended with his demotion to Red Bull’s sister team Alpha Tauri. 

However, while Gasly did struggle to get to grips with a tricky Red Bull car, he has come into his own in the Alpha Tauri over the seasons- he stunned the entire paddock with his terrific maiden race win in Monza at the Italian Grand Prix and has regularly outperformed the car driving it to two other podium finishes. Gasly has long come across as a man with a point to prove, and regained his reputation, he has- as the general consensus across the paddock and among Formula 1 fans has been that the Frenchman is finally ready to take the step up from Alpha Tauri, a team that is effectively a feeder team for Red Bull and thus destined to ever remain a midfielder, to a top team.  

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But instead of triggering a move up the F1 ladder that many were expecting, Perez’ new contract has merely extended Gasly’s alliance of convenience with Alpha Tauri leaving him in Formula 1’s no-man’s-land for yet another year, and that begs the question- is his career at risk of stagnating, even withering, now that the path to Red Bull is all but blocked to him, or is he right to persevere with Alpha Tauri for another season and let his performances do the needful? 

The answer gets clearer as we zoom out and look at the Formula 1 landscape and the entire paddock. As things stand, seats at all the top teams are all but locked in for the next couple of years- Ferrari has Leclerc and Sainz, Mercedes has Hamilton and Russel, and Red Bull of course has already been classed as a dead-end for Pierre. Though it is worth noting that Lewis Hamilton’s long-term future appears somewhat unclear post-2023, with the veteran driver nearing his 40s now. 

At the top of the midfield lies McLaren, where Daniel Ricciardo has continued to flatter to deceive. Ricciardo’s contract runs out at the end of 2023 as well, like Gasly’s, and it will take a miracle of the highest magnitude in the next season and a half for McLaren to extend their relationship with the Aussie.

Alpine is currently also vying for the spoils at the top of the midfield, seeking to bridge the gap with McLaren, and have veteran driver Fernando Alonso currently contracted till 2022. However, it is an open secret that he shall soon renew his contract with the French team for the coming season, and Alpine would be more of a sideways rather than an upwards move for Gasly anyway. 

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These three teams present perhaps the only potential upwards moves for Gasly, and as things stand, none of them are likely to be able to offer him a seat for next season anyway. And of these three, McLaren marks the most realistic option for Gasly- if he were to continue his fine form from 2021 and come to terms with the 2022 car, McLaren will know they’ll be getting a top driver into their stable with his best years still ahead of him- and someone who can push Norris further. 

And so it appears that perhaps the smartest thing to do for the Frenchman is to hold on tight, persevere, and continue his good work at Alpha Tauri for another season. 

But the push for a new seat for 2024 absolutely has to start now. As Gasly enters the prime of his career, he cannot afford to stay at Alpha Tauri beyond 2023- not if he wishes to fight at the top of the F1 pyramid. At Alpha Tauri, he is always going to be a benchmark driver for Red Bull’s newer recruits, ready to be discarded by Red Bull when the understudy starts to match the lead driver’s performances, and Gasly has shown enough in his career already to safely say- he deserves better than that.