“A lot of things have happened in my life in the last 12 months,” he says, beaming. “It’s difficult to expect anything in Formula 1, as there are so many things you can’t predict. Getting my first opportunity with Toro Rosso in Malaysia last year was amazing.”
It has been said that petrol runs through Gasly’s veins. He hails from the French city of Rouen, which hosted five Formula 1 Grand Prixes on a street circuit up until the late 1960s; his father has tried his hand at a variety of motor sports; and his grandfather used to be involved in go-kart racing.
Like all his peers, Gasly graduated to formula racing following a successful karting career from 2006 to 2010. His first taste of single-seater racing came in the competitive French F4 Championship in 2011, when he finished third. He moved up the following year to the two-litre Formula Renault, regarded as an entry-level series to motor racing that allows drivers to learn advanced racecraft before progressing to higher formulas. He came in third that season before taking the title in 2013.
The racing wunderkind’s speed and determination soon caught the attention of Red Bull talent scouts, who promptly signed him up for its Junior Programme. Gasly moved up to the 3.5 Renault series in 2014.
On duty as reserve driver for Red Bull since 2015, Gasly took the opportunity to broaden his experience in other races, as there were no drivers’ seats available for him on Red Bull’s F1 roster in 2016.
He won the 2016 GP2 Series championship in dramatic fashion, taking the title at the final round in Abu Dhabi, and finished runner-up in the very competitive Japanese Super Formula Championship, with two wins and three podium finishes in the 2017 season.
That gentle personality, paired with his slender frame, comes across as shy almost. It is sweet. And makes for an interesting juxtaposition against his fiercely competitive nature. “I’m a really competitive guy,” Gasly asserts. “I’m in the sport to be at the top, and I will be in the seat that will allow me to fight for the top position next year,” he says, referring to the dominance of the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team, with its cars to be powered by Honda engines from 2019.
The press conference has concluded, and we are ushered to an adjoining room for the media interviews. We are soon informed that the duration of our precious one-on-one with Gasly has been further trimmed, as he is held up by fans and journalists next door. We are offered a choice to head back to the press conference room to conduct the interview on the fly. We agree, in the hopes of preserving the final few minutes we have been allocated with him. We are up next and his minders are waiting to whisk him away the moment the press circus ends. Gasly is much taller up close than he first appears, towering over me at 1.77m. His practised responses are the product of a professional, well-oiled machine but delivered with an earnestness that is refreshingly endearing. It is only later that I learn that Gasly is not feeling well; the reason his people are eager to wrap up the interview is so that he can get some rest. Noting his 14th-place driver’s standing prior to the Singapore race, I ask what rank he hopes to achieve by the end of the 2018 season. “Objectively, I think it would be difficult to get much more,” he says, adding that the other drivers are in cars with “more consistency”. How does he think he will fare in Singapore, which is also a night race like Bahrain, where he finished in fourth place — the closest he has come to the podium? “Hopefully in the same place,” he says. “Singapore is a very technical and challenging track, where the Toro Rosso car usually performs well. It will be my first time discovering the track this weekend and, hopefully, we can end the weekend with a couple of points.” Alas, Gasly failed to score any points on the board, finishing the Singapore Grand Prix in 13th position. Well, as he said earlier: “I’m only at the beginning of my career. I know exactly where I want to be and what I want to achieve with Formula 1, and I will do everything I can to make it happen.” With his fiercely competitive spirit and strong self-belief, Gasly is definitely a new face and name to watch out for on the grid going into 2019. Jamie Nonis is a lifestyle journalist with an appreciation for all things beautiful
