Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc are one of the closest friends in F1. The Frenchman and the Monegasque, despite driving for different teams, have spent and continue to spend a lot of time off the tracks, together.
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The true depth of their friendship can be understood from the book Gasly’s father wrote about his son. In “Gasly, Le Magnifique”, his father wrote after Charles’ crash in Monza in 2020, “I was relieved when I saw him walking out of the crash. Charles is part of the family.”
The two drivers have been friends right from their time in karting, and continue to be very close friends now that they compete in F1. Pierre spoke about spending time with Charles and his girlfriend, Charlotte Sine.
In an interview, he said, “And then yeah, at the same time we have like hobbies. He is very into like flying. And same thing, I am very attracted by skydiving. I was having a conversation but his girlfriend was clearly not buying what I was selling to Charles. But I’ll try again. The girlfriend is always the boss.”
nah bc pierre trying to convince charlotte to let charles come skydiving with him is extremely funny 😭😭 pic.twitter.com/8MzyTwstn9
— julie | RACE WEEK BABY 🤠 (@leclercgasIy) October 21, 2022
“As much as we try, they always have the final word. So I know I don’t need to sell it to Charles about the skydiving, I just need to find a way for her to agree with that. I say for sure, before the kids, don’t know when you guys planning to do kids but I know I want this slot in a couple of years where we can make it up.”
It is heartwarming to see such a beautiful friendship. What makes it even greater is that their friendship has remained unaffected despite the fact that now the two compete at the top of racing.
The complexity behind the move from AlphaTauri to Alpine for Pierre Gasly
Among the many variables, part of the drivers’ roulette in 2022 was Pierre Gasly. It was an open secret that he was driving for a team well below his caliber, but the question was – where can he move?
Leclerc wasn’t the only one Gasly grew up with. Their group of 4 also included Esteban Ocon and Anthoine Hubert. The 4 drivers spent several years together and thus had very close bonds. But between Gasly and Ocon, the relations soured over time.
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The two Frenchman admittedly grew apart; this souring was one of the main reasons behind the doubts about Alpine bringing in Pierre. However, they did end up recruiting Pierre. The two Frenchman also seem to have made up their differences.
Gasly said after the move, “We both want to be competitive we both want to be fighting at the front. And we know to achieve that, we have to work together for the team. I’m quite excited about it.”
“It’s an opportunity for both of us to get back to a similar relationship that we had in the past.”
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Alpine made a bold move. On paper, their lineup looks very good and very competitive. But at the end of the day, what’ll matter is whether they can manage the two personalities.