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Pierre Gasly Moves to Alpine As Alpha Tauri Signs Nyck De Vries, Ricciardo Out of Options

Ever since Nyck de Vries made his stellar debut at the Italian GP and scored points in a Williams, he has been linked with a lot of seats on the Formula 1 grid. However, after he confirmed he spoke to Helmut Marko, all speculations were hinting toward an Alpha Tauri seat.
Pierre Gasly 11 photos
Photo: Formula 1
Alpine and Alpha Tauri on TrackPierre GaslyPierre GaslyPierre Gasly During Red Bull StintPierre Gasly Signing AutographEsteban Ocon Signing AutographEsteban OconEsteban Ocon On TrackDaniel Ricciardo in His F1 CarDaniel Ricciardo in His F1 Car
We covered that subject here, too, and those speculations were spot on, as Nyck has been confirmed to drive for Alpha Tauri next season. He will partner up with Yuki Tsunoda, which leaves Pierre Gasly out of the team.

Those who have been following the entire driver market carousel in this silly season will know that is a non-issue, as Gasly made it clear he wanted to join Alpine. That is exactly what happened here, as Red Bull released him from his contract with their sister/junior team.

But while his move to a French team will motivate him to excel and make him proud to be racing for his home country, not all will be milk and honey. It is a brilliant move. Whether you think of marketing, the connection between the team and driver, or the car being flat out better. But it does raise one concern.

I am, of course, talking about Esteban Ocon and the less-than-ideal relationship between him and Pierre Gasly. It is no secret that the pair don’t see eye-to-eye, and it’s up to each F1 fan to decide who they think caused this. However, what is certain is that Ocon himself has not proven to be a good teammate during his tenure in Formula 1.

He had a rather famously dysfunctional relationship with Sergio Perez during their Force India (now Aston Martin) partnership, which cast a shadow on the Frenchman. But time has passed and he does seem to have changed, with the collaboration between him and Alonso serving as proof. Still, it remains to be seen if Ocon and Gasly can fix their relationship and succeed with Alpine as a purely French team.

This means that most Formula 1 teams have already announced their driver pairings, and all the good seats have been occupied. With these developments, Daniel Ricciardo’s career looks more and more uncertain and makes a year out of Formula 1 the most likely outcome.
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About the author: Bogdan Bebeselea
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As a kid, Bogdan grew up handing his dad the tools needed to work on his old Citroen and asking one too many questions about everything happening inside the engine bay. Naturally, this upbringing led Bogdan to become an engineer, but thanks to Top Gear, The Fast and the Furious series, and racing video games, a passion for automotive entertainment was ignited.
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