MONZA, Italy -- Pierre Gasly has said Alpine’s surprisingly strong Italian Grand Prix will be a galvanising one for a team which has long set its sights on closing the gap to Formula 1’s big four.
Gasly took a shock pole position on Saturday, the first one of his career, a day after losing a podium finish at June’s Monaco Grand Prix through the FIA’s International Court of Appeal.
It came at the venue of his memorable 2020 race win, which helped him rebuild his career after being dropped by Red Bull a year earlier.
“Story of my life,” Gasly joked when asked about the weird sequence of events at Monza, where he finished seventh.
“It’s been a lot going on. For sure the last 24 hours have been extremely fun and extremely enjoyable with all the energy, the motivation in the garage. The reaction of the whole team, I’m sure it’s going to bring a huge boost to all of us.
“The gap with the cars in front was smaller than the gap with the car behind. That’s what we’ve got to build on and hopefully we can repeat this type of performance more often. There’s a new belief as well.”
Gasly felt seventh was the best he could have done, even if a small part of him wondered if he would be able to repeat his 2020 heroics from pole position.
“I mean, the part of me that is realistic is very satisfied,” he said. “Obviously starting on pole you must have a side of you which thinks, ‘OK, what can happen over 54 laps,’ this and that, but I’ve got to be honest, before the race we knew that the pace in the race would be extremely difficult to stay up there and fight with the top guys.
“I’m very happy with the two starts. We took two great starts, managed to keep the lead on the first one, great on the second. Battled slightly, stayed in the right train for the first ten laps, which was really good.
“Battled with Lando [Norris], who won the last two races, so from where we come from it’s very positive. Finished three seconds behind Lewis [Hamilton], who’s been fighting for podiums this year. I’m not going to be disappointed with that.
“Obviously the end result is P7 and you’ll wish you can get slightly more out of it, but I think overall we’ve just got to take all the positives from the weekend, because there were many, and try to build from that.”
Alpine struggled in 2025, finishing last in the championship, but have found renewed form this season under F1’s new regulations.
Gasly feels like weekends like Monza -- which saw wild celebrations in the Alpine garage when he crossed the line on Saturday -- will reverberate through the team, which has struggled to live up to lofty expectations of championship challenges even stretching back to his days as Renault, before the French manufacturer rebranded it to Alpine.
“We still have stuff to learn and do better, but overall I think we’re very well aware and heading in the right direction,” he said. “Even for the team, I think the last pole was 2009. I imagine some guys have been working there for years and never experienced it.
“I’m sure going back in Enstone is going to be quite special. Again, that should be the target, try to repeat it and get a bit better on Sunday and try to be in that mix in front of us.”
