Daniel Ricciardo spoke to Alpine but Otmar Szafnauer reveals why they chose Pierre Gasly
Gasly will be in the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 2023 driver line-up with Alpine after opting to leave AlphaTauri.
Ricciardo, whose contract is being terminated early by McLaren, has admitted he won’t be on the F1 2023 grid but Alpine have conceded that a link-up 🔯was discussed.
“At the beginning we discussed with a few drivers, including Daꦉniel,” Alpine team principal Otmar S♏zafnauer said.
Ricciardo represented🐓 the French team when they were known as Renault.
Alpine were in need of a new driver for next season when 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Fernando Alonso announced he would leave to join Aston Martin as a replacement for the retiring 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sebastian Vettel.
“We had a seat available around the summer break, and then we started looking around as to who would be [the] best fit, and we had some criteria to wor😼k to,” Szafnauer said.
“The three th🌃ings we wanted were natural speed, a fast driver; one with experience; and also youth at the same time.
“Adding all three things up,🌳 ther💯e aren’t many people that have all that, and Pierre definitely does.
“Pierre meets the criteria that I said to a tee. He’s experie🐲nced, fast and young, so when it became evident that Pierre was a possibility, we made our shortlist eveꦍn shorter.”
Gasly will team with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Esteban Ocon next year.
“They’ve known each other for a v🐎ery long time and they’ve raced together,” Szafnauer said.
“They’re about equally experienced, they’re both very fast and both ambitious, so I think th𓃲ey’ll work well together.”
Gasly is currently 13th in the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 standings, Ricciardo is 12th.
James was a sports journalist at Sk🅰y Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to💯 football, to F1.
