Pierre Gasly feeling new motivation in French duo at Alpine in F1

LONDON (AP) — Pierre Gasly says he's feeling reinvigorated as part of a French driver lineup at Alpine after spending all of his Formula One career to date as part of the Red Bull organization.

Gasly partners fellow French driver Esteban Ocon for 2023 at Renault-owned Alpine. The two have known each other since they were 6-year-old rivals in go-karting.

“It’s a new beginning for me, the start of a new journey, and I must say I’m extremely motivated," Gasly said Thursday at the launch of Alpine’s car for the new season.

Alpine was fourth in the constructors' championship last season and has set a target for 2023 of “consolidating” that position while closing the gap to the top three of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

“There’s just massive potential. And we’ve got the resources, we’ve got the human resources, and it’s just about putting the work in, and I’m sure the results are going to follow," the 27-year-old Gasly said.

Gasly arrives as a replacement for Fernando Alonso, who joined Aston Martin.

Since his F1 debut in 2017, Gasly had been part of Red Bull and its second team, then known as Toro Rosso and now AlphaTauri. He was promoted to the main Red Bull team in 2019 but demoted again halfway through the season. Gasly took his only F1 win with AlphaTauri the following year at the Italian Grand Prix.

Off track, Alpine is aiming to stand out with intense work to develop the car through the season, team principal Otmar Szafnauer said.

Last year, he said, “the gap to third was big and we’ve got to close that gap, but in order to do so, we must develop at a higher rate than any other Formula One team out there, which isn’t easy to do.”