EXCLUSIVE: Pierre Gasly and Bruno Famin on the driver’s decision to stick with Alpine – and the plans for the second seat

Gasly on staying at Alpine

Alpine say they kept Gasly because they felt there’s so much more to come – and that’s a view echoed by the Frenchman, who feels he’s got unfinished business with a squad he only joined 18 months ago.

“I have taken the time to seek the answers I was looking for,” says Gasly. “From the start, I always felt like my heart wanted to continue with the team. It’s for different reasons. It’s a French manufacturer, the factory is less than a couple of kilometres from my town and I have this special connection with the brand.

“I also feel like I haven’t achieved anything near what I wanted to achieve when I signed initially, two years ago. It feels like it would be a shame to stop here. I always felt like I wanted to continue.”

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Famin hinted the way the team had reacted to their dismal start to the year had played a part – and Gasly concurred with that train of thought.

“I know it is a bit controversial, as at the moment, the performance is not great on the track,” he says. “But I still think over two or three months, the team still showed me quite a lot, because when you look at where we were last week, compared to where we started in Bahrain, it’s still a big jump, and a big step forward, which I don’t think other teams managed to achieve.”