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After two years as teammates at AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda have finally parted ways with the Frenchman moving on to Alpine. Fans, however, are confident that their bromance will continue to stay alive.
The two drivers shared a good friendship that worked in favor of AlphaTauri on track as well as off it. Gasly essayed the role of a mentor as the more experienced driver in the team, especially during Tsunoda's rookie season back in 2021.
At the end of the 2022 season, as reported by F1.com, Pierre Gasly confirmed that he has every intention of maintaining his friendship with his former teammate. The Frenchman described the 22-year-old as a "unique character" with a "great sense of humour", saying:
“He doesn’t live that far from my house in Milan so I am sure we will get some more time in the off-season to catch up. But there is no bull**** with Yuki and that is one thing I will really appreciate. Everything which goes through his mind is out of his mouth in a flash of light. He’s a very unique character, got a great sense of humour, no filter, which can be quite surprising at times, but he is a great human being. Really enjoyed these last two years seeing him evolve within the team. Also as a person I think he has developed quite a lot – definitely someone I appreciate, and I’ll happily call as a friend now.”
Pierre Gasly will be joining Esteban Ocon at the French outfit this season on a two-year contract.
Fans react to Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly's bromance coming to an end
Alpine hopes Pierre Gasly will take the team "to the next level"
Alpine made quite a big change ahead of the 2023 F1 season, taking on Pierre Gasly to replace two-time world champion Fernando Alonso. The French outfit hopes this can return the team to its winning days after having spent quite a few seasons struggling in the midfield.
As reported by F1.com, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi admitted that what the team needs is a driver who can extract the maximum potential from the car throughout the race weekend. He hopes that the driver to achieve this will be Gasly himself, saying:
“Hopefully he’s [Pierre Gasly] going to bring what we need, which is to continue developing the car, because at the moment, we are still pretty much in the midfield, and we need to take the car a notch up. For that, you need drivers that are not only capable only to go fast and score points with the potential the car gives us, but also to take it to the next level.”
“That means that you need to, as of Friday morning, be able to give feedback to the team and take the whole team in the right direction so the car improves – that’s what Pierre, we hope, is going to bring. I mean, he was the technical leader in many ways, I guess, at AlphaTauri. We want him to continue doing that, grow the team, grow himself with us and take us to a new level.”
Pierre Gasly finished the 2022 F1 season 14th in the drivers' standings.
