The Alpine A110 future is an electric sports car concept from Alpine. Gasly says it feels exciting because the electric power comes on quickly, and it also handles well on the hill.
Here, “drifting” means the car can slide a little while turning, in a controlled way. Gasly is saying the car feels easy to steer and rotate through corners.
Mid-corner grip means how well the tires stick to the road while you’re halfway through a turn. More grip there usually makes the car feel stable and confident through corners.
Maggots-Becketts is a well-known set of corners at Silverstone. It’s the kind of section where you can judge how well a car keeps speed through a tricky, fast part of the track.
Drifting is when a driver deliberately makes the car’s rear slide while still controlling it. It’s a way to drive fast while the tires are near their grip limit.
In F1, stewards are the officials who review incidents and apply penalties, then publish official classifications. When Gasly says his third was “slightly disputed but properly reinstated,” it implies a steward decision changed the result.
Red Bull is the Formula 1 team environment Pierre Gasly refers to when discussing his difficult period there. In F1, a driver’s results are closely tied to the team’s car development, setup direction, and overall performance level.
Formula 2 (F2) is the main feeder series to Formula 1, where drivers race single-seaters and develop their skills before moving up. Gasly references a fatality-related turning point in his career connected to an F2 crash.
The paddock is the working area around the race track where teams, drivers, and media operate between sessions. In F1, it’s also where reputations form quickly, so “the paddock wrote me off” means people judged his future based on early results.
Toro Rosso was Red Bull’s junior team in Formula 1, where drivers often go to rebuild confidence and prove they can perform. Gasly describes it as a place where he knew the team and expected “fair equipment” to show his potential.
A podium is finishing in the top three positions in a race (1st, 2nd, or 3rd). Gasly highlights how quickly he achieved his first podium after returning to Toro Rosso, which is a key performance milestone in F1.
Brazil refers to the Brazilian Grand Prix venue on the F1 calendar where Gasly says he achieved his first podium. In F1, country references usually mean the specific race event held at that location that weekend.
A restart is when the race starts running again after it was slowed or stopped (like for safety reasons). Gasly is saying that after the restart he was in third, then had to push hard to win.
McLaren is the racing team behind Carlos’s Formula 1 car. Pierre is saying the McLaren was faster than him during the weekend, so he had to manage the race and keep Carlos from closing in.
A qualifying lap is the lap drivers do to set their starting position for the race. Here, Gasly is basically saying he felt like every lap was a “maximum effort” lap while he was out front.
Braking is how drivers slow down before a turn. In racing, it’s not just “stop”—it’s about braking at the right moment and with the right force so the car turns in quickly and stays stable.
A chicane is a section of track with quick, tight turns that forces cars to slow down. It’s often where drivers fight for position because it’s tricky to drive fast and easy to defend in.
In Formula 1, you can win individual races (one event at a time) or win the whole season. He’s talking about the special feeling of winning a single Grand Prix.
Porsche is a famous car brand that makes high-performance sports cars. Here it’s just one of the brands mentioned when talking about his car collection.
Ferrari is an Italian brand famous for supercars and Formula 1 racing. Here it’s mentioned as one of the brands brought up in the discussion about his car collection.
Aston Martin is a British car brand known for stylish, high-end performance cars. In this interview, it’s part of a list of brands connected to the idea of Gasly owning a collection.
Renault is a big French car company that’s also very important in racing. Pierre Gasly mentions it because it’s part of the motorsport culture he grew up around.
Enstone is a location in the UK where an F1 team’s main facilities are. Pierre Gasly explains he goes there often to use the simulator and to meet the team behind the scenes.
In racing, a simulator is like an advanced practice setup that lets drivers and engineers test how the car behaves. Gasly says he goes to Enstone mainly to use it.
Formula 1 has rules that control how much of the car’s energy comes from fuel versus electricity. Gasly is saying the new rules make it a roughly 50/50 mix, and that changes how you use power when accelerating out of turns.
Term
driving efficiently
In racing, “driving efficiently” means you don’t just mash the gas everywhere. You manage your speed and grip so the car stays quick for the whole lap and race.
“Back on power” means when you start accelerating again after slowing down for a turn. The timing matters because if you hit the gas too abruptly, the tires can lose grip.
“g’s” are a way to describe how hard the car is pulling you during acceleration or cornering. More g’s usually means the forces are stronger and the driving is more intense.
An “F1 driver” is someone who races in Formula 1, the highest level of open-wheel racing. It’s not just driving fast—there’s a lot of strategy and physical effort involved.
“Driving style” means how someone drives—like when they brake and when they press the gas. In F1, even small differences can change how fast the car goes.
Term
break as late as you can
This means braking later than usual before a corner. Braking later can keep the car faster going into the turn, as long as you still slow down enough to steer safely.
Term
go on throttle as early as possible
This means pressing the gas earlier when you’re coming out of a corner. The trick is doing it at the right time so the tires can grip instead of slipping.
LIVE
Welcome to a bonus episode of the AutoCar Podcast where Matt Pryor and Steve Cropley
will be interviewing Pierre Gasly, Alpine Formula One driver. We were speaking on the
Alpine stand live at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, actually at the same time as Goodwood
launched a fireworks display so apologies if that's in any way distracting. We talk
about Pierre Gasly. Thanks very much for joining us today. You have, I hear and see on the big
screens already been up the hill today in the A110 future. How was that? That was very special.
Well, hi everybody. It's great to see so many people hot here today for such a cool event. It's
been a while since I've been in Goodwood. I've been here with Red Bull a couple years ago,
but now it's been incredible. So I had the first ride with the A110 future,
first EV sports car and I must say it was very cool. I always loved going up that hill,
seeing all the fans. It seems like everybody is just here for a good time, big smiles, great energy
and it felt great. The Duke looked like he was holding on a bit in the car. How was the drive?
I mean, yeah, I had the best co-pilot ever for going up the hill of Goodwood. So yeah,
I had the chance to have the Duke next to me and yeah, it was great. Just getting a feel for the
car, the electric power when it all comes at once feels like a good proper push of the line
and yeah, it was just great. The car handles very well. Somebody told us that you are the owner of
petrol A110. Tell us. I am, yeah. Give us a comparison between the two. How did they differ?
Well, I had a run with the A110 on the track of Silverstone last weekend and properly like hot laps,
pushing pretty hard with it and you know, it's difficult to compare because I just had one run
up the hills quite short, quite different conditions, but I know what the car is capable of
and in terms of handling, it's really playful. That's why I like it so light and really like
throw it in all the right, you know, all drifting through the corners. It's very light, so there is
quite a lot of grip mid-corner and going around Silverstone like Maggots Beckets, I was even impressed
myself with a road car, how much speed you can carry through there. So probably not the greatest
to compare road cars because I'm driving F1 cars which are different speeds, but the handling for
me is behind the wheel. You can really have a lot of fun. It's very playful and that's the most
important to have like a car that, you know, you have the full control. You can drift and always
feel kind of safe, but really play with it. Great. I gather this is a moment for congratulations.
You've got to 500 Grand Prix points. Yeah, that's true. I guess you're proud of that.
Yeah, yeah, very, you know, very happy. If you ask me, I'm all looking forward to the next 500
and looking back at the 500 I've scored. And then I like plenty more. So no, I think it's,
yeah, for sure, it's a great milestone. And then I think it's, yeah, in these 500, there have been
many great races and there's a lot of emotions related to it, a lot of podiums, the famous
win in Monza. But then, yeah, hopefully the next 500 will come a lot quicker.
Things have gone well for you this last season, hasn't it? Much better than before.
What do you put that down to? So they've been, you know, last year we started the season a bit
on the back foot and the team very early on decided to focus on switch focus to 2026 with
this new car, new regulation, new engine. So a lot of effort has been put in this year's car.
We started in Australia in a much better place and straight away we were kind of like fighting
at the front of the midfield behind the top four. A couple of races finishing six, sevens. We even
got the podium in Monaco. So yeah, we've been in a much better shape. I think it's all down to the
faults and the focus you're putting in the car. You know, the field is extremely competitive.
You're fighting against incredible teams, you know, to the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes,
McLaren, Red Bull. They've been very successful in the sport and, you know, getting into that
Newreggs regulation quite early on helped us to kind of jump on the right train and, you know,
start the season of the right foot. Obviously now there is a lot of development coming.
We've dropped slightly the last two weekends. Hopefully next week in Spa we'll be able to
be slightly more competitive and, you know, hold on to that fifth place in the constructor,
which will be great from where we came from last year.
Presumably it's quite a big step to move further than fifth, isn't it? Because the
top four teams are so very good. Yeah, I mean the top four, I've kind of been there for now
quite a few seasons. I think they've built the infrastructures, the processes over the years
that really benefit them like in the efficiency that they're able to, you know, develop their cars
and all the knowledge. So, you know, as much as I like to close that gap overnight,
it's never going to happen in that sport. So you've got to be patient. We've got to work,
you know, looking at ourselves and understanding what our strength, what our weaknesses compared
to these guys. And, you know, slowly close the gap. I think the goal clearly until the end of the
year is to keep that fifth place in the constructor and hopefully make another step in the right
direction next year to, you know, give them a bit more of a hard time.
One big change has been the arrival of Flavio, Priatori, and everybody knows that he's
a very influential person. Give us a flavor of how he's changed things.
There are things I can't say, all this stuff I can't say.
The stuff you want to hear, I can't say. I must say I really like what's very impressive with him
is, you know, the leadership and the experience is, you know, he's done it in F1, he's lived it,
he's been world champion with the team, he's been very successful outside of Formula One,
he's kind of seen it all and still at his age gets back to Endstone and put all the efforts
for one single reason. He wants to see the team successful again and try to win
the World Championship again with the team. As you say, he's very influential, he's connected,
you know, he's got links to everybody, but he's got only one motivation, is to see an
outpin on the top step again and he's really throwing everything at it. He's a real racer,
a real leader, he's got his personality, he's not very patient, which I'm not as well, so we
match quite well there and so far he's done a lot of good stuff for the team. Obviously,
there's still a long way to go, but as I say, it's going to take time and no doubt that he's the
right guy for this job. But you get on well with him, do you? Because he's got a bit of a reputation
for being quite hard on drivers when he feels like it? Well, if you don't perform, you're not
going to get on well with Flavio, but I think that's the same thing everywhere. It's a competitive
sport, it's a competitive environment. At the end of the day, you're either good enough or if you
don't perform, then someone should do it for themselves. At the end, I'm the one that puts
the most pressure on myself. I know what I want to achieve and I'm very tough on myself in terms of
what I want to deliver to the team on track, and I think that I appreciate that and I'm very
competitive and always try to do my absolute best behind the wheel. One of the things that
there are a number of interesting highlights in your career, obviously the win at Monza,
which is an amazing thing, and your recent third slightly disputed but properly reinstated
at Monaco, but the thing that also people talk about in your career is the fact that you had a
quite a big reverse at Red Bull and you had to rehabilitate yourself and you did, and not many
drivers in F1 have been able to do that. Do you count that as a big achievement? Because I would
Yeah, 100%. 2019 was a very tough year for sporting reasons, personal reasons, losing my
best friend Antoine Iberu had a terrible crash in Formula 2 and all coming at once. I think a lot
of people in the paddock wrote me off right after the the the motion to Toro Rosso and
it wasn't a pleasant time, but at the same time I knew what I was capable of. I knew what was going
wrong in the team in Red Bull and the different reasons why it didn't work at the time and it was
almost a bit of a relief as well when I jumped back to Toro Rosso knowing that I knew this team,
I knew what they would give me, and I knew that I'll be able to display my potential
with fair equipment with my team as well. Did it feel like going home? Yeah, kind of, but also
felt like I would have the tools at my disposal to just do what I can do in a race car and obviously
didn't expect to get my first podium two and a half months straight away. After 67 races
I got my first podium in Brazil with the drag race with Louis, you know, up that last main
straight which was really cool. I mean it was a very very nice podium, but yeah it was tough.
And then a victory the next season? And then the next season I won,
was told that if I win a race I get back to Red Bull which eventually never happened,
but it doesn't matter I still won that race and yeah it was incredible because we were definitely
you know outsiders and on that day the race went the way it did and then we found ourselves in third
place at the restart and we had 25 laps to go and it was very long 25 laps especially with the
McLaren of Carlos who was they were very competitive that weekend, but yeah I knew every
single lap of that race. Did you start hearing funny noises? No, but I knew that that's mine,
that's there is no chance it's going and I would have not you know I would have not been able to
look at myself in the mirror if I would have came second there on that day. So yeah it was it was
a great performance and it was a feeling I love because I was leading the race, no one in front
of me, it was a qualifying lap after qualifying lap nothing else to think about you know every
single corner every single braking trying to really nail all these laps and it was yeah very
enjoyable. Is that the best sort of feeling when you're ahead of everything you don't have to worry
about anything except just nailing the fastest lap you can? Yeah I mean it's the best position to be
in when you're leading a race that's for sure and you know at the end of the day I remember at the
time all I can do is control my own pace Carlos with the McLaren they're faster throughout the
weekend I think they qualified on this on the first or second row he was catching me but there's
no point you know looking and just seeing him you know getting bigger and bigger in the mirrors
all I could do is just trying to be as fast as I could and trying to make it as difficult as
possible for him to try something but I had all plenty of tactics you know of my sleeve in case
you'll get too close and in case you will get to a will-to-will battle on the on the last two laps
and in the end I didn't have to it came close but we didn't I didn't have to. What was the margin?
I think on the last lap would have four tenths when we passed the line so I think
if there would have been an extra lap there would have been quite exciting exactly but I remember
plenty of stuff the year before Charles Charles had a battle I think it was with Lewis in the chicane
like I mean I had some stuff sorted in case I need to defend by India and we didn't have to do it and
yeah I mean the emotion there's so much you know so much work sacrifices a lot of up and down a lot
of you know success but challenging um through through a career and it's like when you pass that
line I you know I realized um made one of my dream come true it was just the emotions I felt and that
they were incredible. How long did it take you to get over it? Probably not. I remember waking up on
Monday morning I was like this Monday morning is the best ever Monday morning I've ever had in my life
usually your people are grumpy Monday morning a full week ahead of you it's like this is the
best day um and yeah I think I was still buzzing for yeah definitely quite a few days.
Do you think do you think having won a race like that given that it's your life's work it's the thing
you set out all those years ago at the age of 10 to do does that make you a different person different
driver? 100 percent um it's you know obviously it's not the final achievement
and my goal in Formula One is to fight for a world championship and hopefully get 11 day but
it's just a nice reward for all the efforts I've put in my team and my family and everyone
has put over the years um hasn't been always easy a lot of people especially my family made a lot
of sacrifices and um it's just nice to get that that reward that I felt felt the emotions of being
a Formula One race winner which is not given to everybody on the grids and um yeah it's not a
world championship but it's still a very unique feeling it's still pretty good it's still a very
unique feeling which you know having felt it would have been very you know tough in case you like
you never get to the chance to win one. You're sponsored here by a road car company
give us an idea of I'm not sure if it's sponsored or backed whatever though yeah I'm a type of
fumble you sponsored sounds good yeah um but it's give us an idea of your relationship with road
cars I gather you have a pretty decent collection of cars yourself somebody who watches the internet
told us about Porsche McLaren Ferrari and Aston Martin have you got a considerable
collection have you not all these ones but um maybe one day okay um what about your what about the
you do have three Alpines I believe tell us about do you drive them much how do you do I
I hate driving on the road so I mean I think I still have all my points which very good is good
very behave driver that's why I don't drive and um but I mean Alpine to me is I have a very special
connection with the brand because I'm from the north of France Normandy um and these cars
have been built and they're still built like an hour away from my hometown so since I was a kid you
know my dad used to speak about basically Renault is the most iconic car brand in France and also
Alpines very famous in my region so from a very young age I heard about Alpine a lot um in the
younger series younger formulas I participated in the Formula Renault um so I already had
like a link with uh you won the series didn't you and I won this I won the series in 2013
and um yeah being French is the only French manufacturer in Formula One and um yeah when I
had the chance to you know sign with the team to me it's obviously a very unique connection
I have with them basically the team the F1 team is based in Enstone which kind of like two hours
away from from here and um we have like um French roots in the in the team a lot of British people
part of the team um but it's uh yeah being French racing for for a French car brand is
obviously something that makes me very very proud what's your relationship with Enstone do you go
there much pretty much every two weeks yeah so yeah I'll say I spend probably yeah around 30
30 days a year considering we have 24 races all the testing etc yeah I do go there pretty often
um I mean that's where yeah the factory is that's my way of connecting with the people I go there
mainly for the simulator but also you know just to see what's going on and try to help the guys
in all the different departments we got like about thousand people working there in Enstone so
it's they must they must enjoy seeing you come you know and I'll hope so but um yeah it's definitely
you can you can see the the passion you can feel the the history of the team we've got all the
trophies from you know all the years back to the Benetton days um to like the Renault when they won
the world championship with Alonso um it is definitely a very a very special place yeah
sorry Matthew I don't know how difficult it is to describe what's it like to drive a modern formula
one but um well where to start what it's like well first of all you have a lot of power um
like when you get the full so this year we've changed the regulation we got 50 combustion 50
percent electric uh whenever you get the full power output out of a corner it's it's a very
unique feeling um something that I'll never get tired of um now the old battery story this year
I'm not going to get into too much detail here um because I'm not a big fan myself of all of that and
I don't want to get too too bold about all these topics with battery etc but uh yeah I think it
went a bit too far uh because now we have a lot to manage actually it's you've got to be driving
efficiently which doesn't mean necessarily going as fast as you can through all the corners but there
is some sort of management in understanding which corner um needs to be pushed absolutely
200 percent or which one are you actually better off just taking a bit of margin and
you're driving in the way you go back on power to get a better lap time out of it which if you
ask me I from my from the day I started go-kart at six years old there's been only one rule
when you're behind the wheel you just go as fast as you can through the corners and I think that's
the way it should be um but then yeah we have a lot still a lot of loads um downfalls on the car so
maggots beckets you're going through these corners at like 270 kph 280 kph is we're getting up to
like 5 g's which it's uh yeah it's definitely a feeling which you don't get anywhere else than in a
formal one car and my dream will be for you guys wondering that they make some sort of car that
can make you understand what it's like to fill these uh forces because like even when I see these
two C2 F1 cars it's never going to be exactly the same as we we have in the car can you give us
an idea about uh we all imagine what you know without knowing what it's like to be an F1 driver
but can you can you tell us about the build up you know how do you when there's a race in prospect
how do you feel a week before how do you feel a day before do you sleep the night before that
kind of thing what's it like is it a tense job or do you just stroll through it because you
seem a really relaxed bloke to me um I would say this varies a lot between drivers personalities
experience the way I felt in my first season in F1 is very different to what I feel now after 10 years
and even like 56 years ago I'll feel quite different um I think I'm someone that
needs to be in control of everything that's going on I need to understand
I need to feel that you know I have my checklist I need to do my work with the team assimilate
assimilate physical preparation my recovery my nutrition I need to make sure that I tick all
these boxes to feel at my 100% and then once I've done all of that I've got nothing to worry about
because I know I'm going to be able to put my best performance um and I think that's why I'm so calm
I know I got to work I know I work really hard on the grids and I spend a lot of time with the
team I spend a lot of time understanding about the car about the engine I really don't leave anything
you know um out of the equation yeah and um it just that's my way of making myself relax um
and then yeah I mean I'm quite chill I mean I've done my simulator preparation yesterday for spa um
I haven't been home for the past 23 weeks now so I have a couple
of days home this weekend and uh and then after I go to spa I mean I don't know I'm quite relaxed
you know I go to bed the same way as you go to bed I do my own you know own preparation but when I
get to the track obviously I'm more focused on my performance it's four days I don't do much I'm just
there do my business do my work with the team understanding how to get the
the best out of the car and um yeah I'm someone that usually stays quite late quite like a late
person so I probably arrive the latest but then I leave the latest most of the time the car park
is empty when I leave the track but then I can process all my stuff at night and then when I wake
up I'm fresh to to go and do my uh do my thing I think we're running out of time but 11 thing
that we're we're both rather desperate to know is what what give us an idea about driving styles
you you you're relaxed in the car what about do you do you note the driving styles of other
drivers are they sort of rougher than you or or sort of you know I think that's uh I mean when
we're talking about driving style I think at the end of the day in f1 it's things are very subtle
so it's like we think oh yeah one is approaching this driving that way and they're all extremely
you know the way the way that you can extract the best from a race car
is not like thousands of ways to do it um you gotta find a way to break as late as you can
car as much speed as you can and go on throttle as early as possible now this subtle difference
may vary between one and another I will say I'm someone that pushed my braking quite a lot so I
always try to make as much time as possible entering the corner and finding as best as possible
the best exit possible now there's some some drivers that will take it's a touch easier but
when we say a touch we're talking like two meters on braking so it's it's that's why it's like very
but then tries to guarantee try to prioritize the exit a touch better but then again when I
say that it's like it might be one kph difference in terms of feeling if you ask there is not
my difference there is a couple of preference and you prefer a car a bit more on the nose
than other but again people have in mind that it's very very different one way or another but
it's all it's all a very similar window I think we have to wind up we do yeah Gasly thank you
thank you very much guys thank you
thank you for joining us Steve Cropley and I will be back on Wednesday with our regular
my weekend cars podcast see you then
About this episode
Pierre Gasly joins the Autocar podcast live at Goodwood to talk about his first ride in the Alpine A110 future EV, calling it “very cool” and describing the electric shove and mid-corner grip. He then zooms out to F1: hitting “500 Grand Prix points,” setting a target to “keep that fifth place in the constructor,” and explaining how leadership and the 50/50 combustion-electric regulation shape power out of corners. He also reflects on subtle driving technique, late braking, and Goodwood’s 5g Maggots and Becketts.
In this bonus episode of the Autocar podcast, we interview Alpine F1 driver Pierre Gasly live on stage at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Amid the fireworks we talk all things modern F1, Alpine's road cars, and much more besides.
