Pierre Gasly's good performance has caught the attention of Felipe Massa, who said that the Frenchman has shown at AlphaTauri that he can drive a top car
Even though he didn't have a good start to the 2022 season - much because of the car's lack of pace and AlphaTauri's constant mistakes - Pierre Gasly is considered one of the strong names in the current crop of Formula 1 drivers. And there are those who think it is past time for the Frenchman to go to a better team, as is the case of Felipe Massa.
The former F1 driver spoke to F1TV about Gasly's performance in the last round of the season, held in Monaco. On that occasion, Gasly once again showed a strong pace in free practice, being always in the top-10, but an error from the Italian team made him fall in Q1. In the race, another great performance, risking his strategy and making great overtaking maneuvers in the tight street circuit of Monte Carlo, but again AlphaTauri failed in the pits, leaving the #10 car out of the points.
Races like this show how Gasly is a driver who deserves a better car, in Massa's opinion. "He was very fast all weekend," evaluated the Brazilian. "Qualifying wasn't very good because of the strategy, and the red flag [in the race, caused by Mick Schumacher], things didn't go perfectly," he added, emphasizing that despite the setbacks, "the performances he has been showing for a while, he is unbelievable."
Gasly is bound to Red Bull and came to defend the Taurinos in 2019, but the underwhelming performance made the Austrian team relegate him to the "B team" after only 12 races played, promoting Alexander Albon to the vacancy. The Frenchman, however, rediscovered himself and even won with AlphaTauri in 2020 in Italy.
Since then, Gasly has been milking milk from a stone with the Faenza-based team as he waits for a spot with a team that will give him the conditions to achieve even better results. "He needs a good car, because he has shown he can drive a top car, he has shown he can even fight for wins," Massa stressed.
The options for 2023, however, are almost nil. With Sergio Pérez's renewal at Red Bull until the end of 2024, Max Verstappen certain until 2028, and Ferrari and Mercedes with their duos defined, McLaren would be left, even though Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo are also guaranteed for next year. The chance would be a possible termination of contract between the English team and the Australian, since Ricciardo has not been performing as expected, and McLaren itself has already said that there are mechanisms that allowed them to break the agreement.