Pierre Gasly Announced at Alpine, Nyck de Vries to AlphaTauri for 2023
Gasly signs a multi-year deal with Alpine starting in 2023, replacing Fernando Alonso. De Vries replaces Gasly at AlphaTauri ahead of other Red Bull juniors.
The 2023 Formula 1 silly season is finally starting to wrap up with almost all of its chess pieces falling into place. Yesterday, Alpine announced Pierre Gasly as their 2023 choice to replace Fernando Alonso after a contract blunder that lost them the two-time champion to Aston Martin and exciting junior prospect Oscar Piastri to McLaren. Just 10 minutes later, AlphaTauri announced Nyck De Vries as Gasly’s replacement.
Contract details for Gasly and de Vries are scarce but we do know that Gasly has signed a “multi-year” deal with the French team to pair fellow Frenchman Esteban Ocon. Ocon’s current multi-year contract with the team, signed in 2020, is due to end in 2024. Generally, a multi-year contract includes two years with an option for an extension. The exact length of Gasly’s contract is unknown.
De Vries’ contract has fewer details. According to AlphaTauri’s announcement, he is signed for next year, with no word about the contract lasting beyond 2023. It looks like the Dutchman signed a single-year deal. Considering his lack of F1 race experience, this is somewhat expected as he is generally an unknown quantity beside his blockbuster race debut at Monza.
This leaves precious few vacancies on the F1 grid for 2023. All that’s left is for Williams and Haas to announce their driver lineup for next season and it’s looking more and more likely Daniel Ricciardo is out of a drive.
Meanwhile, the second seat at Williams is likely to be occupied by Williams’ American junior driver Logan Sargeant. The last wildcard is Haas, with current driver Mick Schumacher on thin ice with the team after losing his place in the Ferrari Driver Academy. It’s unclear who Haas favors for its second race seat.
No matter how it shakes out, next year’s grid will be an exciting one. New talents, new partnerships, and some new tracks have the 2023 F1 season poised as one to remember.
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