The Alpine driver, who is eighth in the 2026 F1 standings and has won much recent praise for his strong results early in the new season, is keen for his tale to serve as a caution to young racers \u2014 those who may be considering \u201ccompromising their family life and way of living\u201d in pursuit of a dream that is very hard to make real.<\/p>\n
Red Bull could see Gasly\u2019s potential. By 2016, he had been racing for its junior team for two years, and the young Frenchman had tested two of its F1 cars. He\u2019d shown impressive speed, but hadn\u2019t won a race.<\/p>\n
Helmut Marko \u2014 then the all-powerful director of the Red Bull junior team \u2014 had had enough. He felt Gasly had to win the 2016 GP2 title (now Formula 2) or face his exit from Red Bull\u2019s program. Marko then increased the pressure on Gasly by reducing the budget Red Bull would provide to fund his season to $500,000, only half the total needed to race for a top GP2 squad.<\/p>\n
Red Bull\u2019s junior scheme is perhaps the most famous example of how teams in top motorsport categories use their wealth to help drivers progress when they cannot fund such seats themselves. Typically, a junior scheme would fund an entire season with a team in F2 or the categories below. In 2016, Gasly also received some financial support from the French motorsport federation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m there on my own, no manager (to help find extra sponsorship),\u201d Gasly said.<\/p>\n
But he did have an alternative path. A new team entering GP2 could take a lower offer of $700,000, as it still needed to prove its place in the new championship. This was Prema Racing, which has since made F2 champions of Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Mick Schumacher.<\/p>\n
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\n Pierre Gasly drives for Prema Racing at the 2016 Italian GP2 round at the Monza circuit. (Dan Istitene \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to make an investment to put ourselves on the level,\u201d former Prema team boss Rene Rosin told The Athletic. \u201cThe first phone call with Pierre, I saw something click between us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gasly believed if he signed with a lesser team at Red Bull\u2019s funding limit, he would have \u201ca shot at the top five (places in the championship)\u201d but knew \u201cthat\u2019s not going to get me to F1.\u201d Days before his 20th birthday in February 2016, he signed for Prema.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like, \u2018we\u2019ve got to do it, and I\u2019m going to find $200k from I don\u2019t know where,\u2019\u201d Gasly said.<\/p>\n
The email arrived soon after.<\/p>\n
Gasly told this story once before,<\/a> in 2021. At the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, he further explained how he and his parents \u2014 Jean-Jacques and Pascale \u2014 had been contacted by \u201ca legit guy in France, which makes what happened even more strange.\u201d<\/p>\n A world exists to link young sporting stars with companies hoping they can one day carry their branding on the biggest stage \u2014 particularly in motorsport. For junior drivers, there\u2019s a small industry behind the scenes that connects young hopefuls with such sponsors. For a cut of the money on offer, brokers link the two sides.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I would say it\u2019s a handful of people offering them the right support,\u201d said Guido Hakkenberg, former head of gaming partnerships at the Williams F1 team, who these days runs motorsport partnerships and PR advisory firm, Racing United.<\/p>\n In Gasly\u2019s case, the perfect scenario seemed to appear. His source in the French sports sponsorship industry, whom Gasly declined to name in the interview with The Athletic, told him a Ugandan businessman \u2014 \u201capparently doing exports, imports, Russia, Africa,\u201d Gasly said \u2014 could plug his funding hole.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Gasly family\u2019s wealth is considerable. Three of Pierre\u2019s four brothers had raced karts before him. But it was not enough to cover the sudden gap in 2016. It had needed Red Bull\u2019s financial muscle to get Gasly so far, and because Marko had already suggested an F1 graduation was possible for 2017 if he won the 2016 GP2 title, the sudden shortfall had to be covered.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were told, \u2018that guy has $250,000 to invest in sports. He\u2019s interested in Pierre\u2019s profile,\u2019 blah, blah, blah,\u201d Gasly said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe guy is working between Moscow and Uganda. I said, \u2018Ok, I\u2019ll just ask him to meet in Moscow because it\u2019s a three-and-a-half-hour flight from Paris, rather than going all the way to Uganda\u2019. And the guy\u2019s like, \u2018Well, I can\u2019t leave right now. So you have 48 hours to get here.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018If you\u2019re interested, you can come and meet me with my lawyer. But otherwise, no problem. It\u2019s fine. I\u2019ll find something else to work on.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The Gaslys were split. At the time, Uganda was gripped by a volatile election between Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, and challenger Kizza Besigye. The latter would lose the 2016 election in a contest that The New York Times called \u201cmarred by widespread irregularities\u201d and violence. Besigye was put under house arrest<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad was like, \u2018 There\u2019s no f\u2014\u2014 way you get there.\u2019 I\u2019m telling my mom I\u2019m going without them,\u201d said Gasly. \u201cMom being mom is like, \u2018Well, I\u2019m not leaving my kid doing it alone.\u2019 So next thing we do is buy the flights. And we end up going to Uganda the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n Jean-Jacques stayed behind, fretting.<\/p>\n \n Pierre Gasly\u2019s view on his taxi ride through Kampala, Uganda, in February 2016. (Picture supplied by Pierre Gasly)<\/p>\n Pierre and Pascale landed at Entebbe International Airport, 25 miles southwest of Kampala. They had paid $3,600 for two coach-class tickets.<\/p>\n \u201cWe arrive. A driver was supposed to wait for us. No driver. Jump in a taxi. Broken car,\u201d said Gasly. \u201cWe stopped after half a mile to pump up the pressures because all the tires were flat.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then, as it was in the middle of a political election, there was a lot of military everywhere. Main roads blocked. Fires everywhere. It was eye-opening.\u201d<\/p>\n They eventually arrived at the meeting point \u2014 a Kampala hotel. But their prospective benefactor, whom Gasly also declined to name, was nowhere to be seen and wasn\u2019t answering Gasly\u2019s calls. Mother and son went to bed increasingly anxious.<\/p>\n \u201cNext morning, he said he had to do something related to the elections. He had to vote,\u201d said Gasly, who was now really getting suspicious about the legitimacy of his proposed new backer. \u201cSo he sent his lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n The arrival did not assuage Gasly\u2019s growing concerns.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lawyer showed up in a flower shirt and flip-flops. He sat down and said, \u2018I\u2019m here representing this guy.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Ok, do you know what you\u2019re here for?\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018All I know is that you want his money, but you\u2019ve got to explain to me why.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Gasly was stunned. The conversation veered from the comparative calm of his motorsport career to Ugandan politics.<\/p>\n Ultimately, \u201chis lawyer offered some dodgy way to get the money,\u201d which was to take the $200,000 in gold bullion bars. \u201cTo which we refused,\u201d Gasly said. \u201cI\u2019m not a gold dealer \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe were looking for money and ended up losing money,\u201d added Gasly, whose father wouldn\u2019t speak to him afterwards for \u201ca couple of weeks for putting ourselves in such a situation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I think about it now, it\u2019s crazy,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut that\u2019s how far we were willing to go to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Nine months later, Gasly clinched the 2016 GP2 title with Prema.<\/p>\n In the intervening time, he had won four races and gone head-to-head with his Prema teammate, and future fellow F1 driver, the Italian racer Antonio Giovinazzi. During his GP2 campaign, he again tested the F1 cars of the Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) and Red Bull squads.<\/p>\n \u201cHe had everything to go to F1,\u201d said Rosin. He later added, \u201cPierre\u2019s determination was massive. He was breaking the balls of everybody to get money. He was really committed to everything.\u201d<\/p>\n Gasly had found the cash he needed to pay Prema \u2014 increasing his sponsor stickers from just Red Bull\u2019s own and that of the French motorsport federation, with new deals to promote motorsport car parts producers and an insurance business.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took time, and Rene was very nice. He allowed me extra time to cover the cost,\u201d Gasly said. \u201cBut it was quite a hassle through that year.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Pierre Gasly celebrates after winning the 2016 GP2 title at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. (Clive Mason \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n Gasly eventually entered F1 at the tail end of the 2017 season \u2013 finally joining Red Bull\u2019s junior team before getting promoted to its main squad in 2019.<\/p>\n That move didn\u2019t work out, with Max Verstappen on his rise to four straight world titles from 2021-2024, and Red Bull\u2019s second seat becoming a revolving door that first spat out Gasly midway through 2019.<\/p>\n But, back at the renamed AlphaTauri squad in 2020, he won that year\u2019s Italian GP.<\/p>\n His big money move to lead Alpine was still to come in 2023. But as he sat alone on the famous Monza podium and the ticker tape streamed down that sunny Sunday, Gasly didn\u2019t want to leave. He was thinking of all the effort that\u2019d brought him to tangible F1 glory.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an interesting story,\u201d Gasly said of his rapid Ugandan trip. \u201cApart from the fact that I was really pissed off.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the flip side, I got back, and it made me appreciate everything I had to another extent. It was eye-opening on the human side.\u201d<\/p>\n In 2026, the stakes are even higher for young drivers. The average price for an F2 seat has tripled over the past decade, now nearing $3 million.<\/p>\n \u201cBecause F1 is doing so incredibly well, it doesn\u2019t need those kinds of sponsors anymore,\u201d Hakkenberg said of Gasly\u2019s story. \u201cThat\u2019s the pressure that some F1 teams used to have, but that\u2019s still there with the drivers. And it\u2019s less regulated, their area, in terms of finding money.\u201d<\/p>\n Gasly\u2019s knowledge of being on the verge of an F1 drive had driven him to take risks with plugging his sudden budget shortfall. But he warns that others are making bigger financial commitments far earlier in their careers these days, without any guarantee they will reach the same level.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople compromising their family life and way of living \u2014 that happens a lot (in junior racing),\u201d said Gasly.<\/p>\n \u201cYou might have a one or two percent chance, and people go all in. You see families really compromising the next 15-20 years, taking so much risk when it\u2019s most likely not going to pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Pierre Gasly racing for Alpine in the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix at the Suzuka track. (Clive Mason \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n It did for Gasly. His move to Alpine pushed him towards the upper echelons of F1 driver salaries \u2014 earnings exceeding $10 million a year \u2014 around the time of his first Alpine contract, signed in 2023. He signed an update to that deal in 2025.<\/p>\n Boosted by that salary increase, these days he\u2019s the investor in French third-tier soccer club FC Versailles and, from January 2026, the MotoGP motorcycling team run by ex-F1 team boss Guenther Steiner<\/a>.<\/p>\n Business, including lucrative property investments, is one of Gasly\u2019s main interests away from F1.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to give back as much as I can,\u201d Gasly said. \u201cSacrifices from my parents also affected my brothers, (so I) make sure that my whole family is covered.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-02-27-at-14.26.17-1.jpeg\")
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