Pierre Gasly is “excited” by AlphaTauri’s ambition to join Red Bull as a front running team in Formula 1.
After a wave of impressive results since returning to the Faenza-based outfit a year ago, including scoring their second ever win at Monza earlier this month, it has often been suggested that Gasly be given a second chance at the senior team.
The Frenchman too also claimed he should be “rewarded” for his performances, but Red Bull bosses have continued to rule out the possibility insisting they’re happy with Alex Albon.
Faced with the likelihood of staying at AlphaTauri, however, Gasly isn’t so concerned because of the goals the team has.
“There’s a clear will and a lot of ambitions coming from AlphaTauri,” he said via F1i.com. “I think it’s a different situation to Toro Rosso/Red Bull, and how it was before.
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“I think the project is exciting. As I said at the moment, the Red Bull team is clearly the top team of the two, but I think that the ambition of AlphaTauri is to, at some point, match their performances.
“And this means we also need the resources and to have bigger facilities to have this sort of thing.”
As it is, the upcoming budget cap and regulation changes will bring AlphaTauri onto a more level footing anyway, but Red Bull is also making moves that will benefit the sister team.
“Obviously AlphaTauri is a rebranded team for this year,” said Christian Horner. “I think their aspirations are beyond where Toro Rosso’s were.
“We have a synergy project within the regulations. For example, the sharing of the wind tunnel will happen for the first time next year, which makes complete sense from a financial perspective.
“The tools we are using, the model size, AlphaTauri will be utilising the same equipment, the same tunnel, and of course that will hopefully be helpful to them in their development, particularly with the 2022 car being such a significant change.
“The regulations are now clear, the grey zones have been taken out in terms of what is and what isn’t allowed and hopefully AlphaTauri will now benefit from that.”
Gasly has warned though that AlphaTauri won’t suddenly become regular podium contenders overnight.
“I think it’s clear that they have big ambitions,” he added. “It’s not a one-year project and we know how long it takes for a team to really build its identity and also its status as a top team.
“So it’s something that is probably going to take some time, but I think it’s not really a sister team as much as it could have been in the past. It’s more trying to make their own space inside F1.”
