Pierre Gasly shares his take on potentially reuniting with Max Verstappen as F1 teammate
Earlier this week, Ralf Schumacher suggested that if Max Verstappen chose to leave Red Bull, the Alpine F1 team could be a suitable home for him. Now, Pierre Gasly, who currently drives for Alpine, has weighed in and agreed with the idea, specifically based on the fact that he will be on track to become the Drivers' champion next season. Gasly believes that the French team would be a place where the Dutchman could race because they have the potential to be a top team.
The Alpine driver's comments came when the publication GPBlog asked him if the French outfit is on its way to becoming a championship contender. He said:
“Well I've said next year I can be world champion so yeah I believe Alpine has got what it takes to fight at the front of the grid.”
If the move to Alpine were to happen, it would be the second time that Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly would be part of the same driver line-up on the F1 grid. The two drivers also drove together for the Red Bull Racing team after Gasly was promoted from Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) for the 2019 season to take the spot of Daniel Ricciardo. After only 12 races, the Frenchman was dropped from his seat in the Austrian outfit, being replaced by Alex Albon for the remainder of the season.
While Gasly eventually moved on to Alpine from the 2023 season till now, Max Verstappen would be paired up with Albon for the rest of 2019 and the 2020 season, then Sergio Perez from 2021 to 2024, Liam Lawson for the first two races this year, and has now been teamed up with Yuki Tsunoda for the remainder of the 2025 season.
Max Verstappen responds to fears of him leaving Red Bull
Earlier this week, Red Bull Racing's consultant, Helmut Marko, shared that he was concerned about Max Verstappen leaving the team based on the poor performance of the RB21, especially at the Bahrain Grand Prix, where the Dutchman started seventh and finished in P6.
However, Verstappen has chosen to shut down any talk of him leaving by stating that he intends to work with the team and improve the car they have for the rest of the season, choosing not to focus on his future but instead on solving the issues he's currently facing. He said [via RacingNews365]:
"I just keep working, trying to improve the car and naturally, Bahrain wasn't a great weekend for us, and we were all pretty disappointed with that, but we will just keep trying to improve the car and come up with new ideas to try.
"A lot of people are talking about my future, except me, so like I said before, I just want to focus on my car and work with the people in the team."
Currently, Max Verstappen has been contracted to drive for the Red Bull Racing team till 2028. However, the same contract holds a 'performance-based' exit clause that the driver could choose to use and leave the team early.