Laurent Rossi hopes Pierre Gasly is going to bring what the BWT Alpine F1 Team needs in 2023, with the Frenchman joining the Enstone-based outfit after leaving Scuderia AlphaTauri.
Gasly has come in to replace the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula 1 Team bound Fernando Alonso this year alongside his fellow Frenchman Esteban Ocon, with the team looking to build on their strong 2022 season that saw them edge out the McLaren F1 Team and finish fourth in the Constructors’ Championship.
Rossi, the CEO of Alpine, says Gasly showed himself to be a technical leader during his time at AlphaTauri, and he believes this will continue during his time with Alpine.
And Rossi hopes this will enable the team to further develop and move onto the next level of performance in 2023 as they look to maintain their advantage at the front of the midfield and close the gap on the leading three teams.
“Hopefully he’s going to bring what we need, which is to continue developing the car, because at the moment, we are still pretty much in the midfield and we need to take the car a notch up,” Rossi is quoted as saying by Motorsport.com.
“For that, you need drivers that are not only capable only to go fast and score points with the potential the car gives us, but also to take it to the next level.
“That means that you need to, as of Friday [practice], to be able to give feedback to the team and take the whole team in the right direction so the car improves.
“So that’s what Pierre, we hope, is going to bring. I mean, he was the technical leader in many ways, I guess, at AlphaTauri. We want him to continue doing that, grow the team, grow himself with us and take us to a new level.”