An impressive surge in the season’s final half earned Pierre Gasly a place in the top ten of Pit Debrief’s 2024 F1 Driver Rankings, coming in ninth.
Alpine’s abysmal start
The season began at a monumental low for the French team. Coming to Bahrain with a car overweight by a whopping 10kg, they were the slowest. Ocon and Gasly crossed the line in P17 and P18 on race day.
This left Pierre Gasly hard to judge in the opening stint of the season. The team had floor upgrades which were brought for China but only fitted to Ocon’s Alpine. Until this stage, the teammates had been equally matched, finishing each race within a few places of each other.
Gasly seemed to have the edge over Ocon on Sundays, but Ocon’s qualifying performance pushed him further up the grid. At one stage, the 2021 Hungarian GP winner held a 10-4 advantage on a Saturday.
Monaco turned the tide
Monaco was where the team dynamics shifted. Ocon made a move into Portier where he failed to leave Gasly space. It resulted in contact and took the 2025 Haas driver out of the race. Luckily for Gasly his car was fixable. With a red flag waved Alpine had time to get the 2020 Italian GP winner back on track.
Ocon was criticised heavily for his role in the accident, while his teammate was praised for his composure to finish 10th.
Finally, the tides had seemingly turned for Alpine but most importantly Pierre Gasly who scored points and outperformed Ocon in the next three races. The midfield was beginning to close in and the Alpine finally seemed able to compete with those around it.
The surprise podium
Brazil marked a monumental moment for Gasly and the team. Although Ocon finished ahead of him after starting the race in fourth, Gasly made a charge through the grid from 13th, making the most of the red flag and coming out with a double podium for the team.
He took a fifth-place finish in Qatar while Esteban Ocon DNFed as a turn 1 incident caused an early end. In Abu Dhabi, where Ocon had been replaced with Jack Doohan, Gasly finished seventh.
Esteban Ocon finished the season with five points finishes while Pierre Gasly managed an impressive nine. These performances in a car that spent the majority of the season overweight and difficult to drive were nothing short of impressive.
This seemed to be the momentum Gasly needed to finish the season on a high. It was in the final five rounds that he had his best performances and took home the most points, scoring in four of them and qualifying P3 in Las Vegas. Beyond that, it was where the biggest gap seemed to appear between the Frenchman and his teammate, although Ocon hinted at the cars not being equal.
The Constructors’s involvement
Pierre Gasly was vital to Alpine’s constructors’ fight. With Haas becoming more and more competitive and consistently in a place to score points. Gasly’s consistency at the end of the season secured their sixth place. Finishing ahead of Hülkenberg in Abu Dhabi also gave the 28-year-old P10 in the Drivers’ Championship.
At the beginning of the season with an overweight chassis and the back of the grid starting to look like home, sixth place in the constructors was “unthinkable” as Gasly described it. He managed to make the most of a difficult car. As the A524 improved, he managed to bring consistency to the table that Alpine needed.
In 2025, he’ll be taking the lead of the team with Ocon moving to Haas. It will be important for him to cement his place in the team without the constant challenge of a rival like Ocon. Doohan will be learning the ropes, and consistently scoring points will be in the Frenchman’s hands.
