Is Pierre Gasly underrated?

Autosport’s driver ratings have been going on for, well, decades, and the responsibility of giving the drivers a score out of 10 has passed through the hands of many esteemed writers and journalists through the years. 

Framed by that previous sentence, you might be thinking “well, why do you do them now, then?”. And that’s only fair…

Since the driver ratings were also launched online, readers have been able to submit their scores too – leading to much debate over the criteria, whether a given mistake should count against a driver, and whether it’s fair to grade a driver who has registered a did-not-start on the final classification.

Ultimately, it’s a) a bit of fun, and b) a subjective ranking; my scores are never going to be reflective of everyone else’s ratings. That’s already noticeable in the average scores across the opening three races as, per the rankings from Melbourne to Suzuka, the readers have Kimi Antonelli, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, and Ollie Bearman as their top five, with George Russell just 0.01 points behind the Haas driver. I suppose that counts for the variance in how different perusers of Autosport look at the scores overall, but what’s particularly interesting is that the readers’ fourth-placed driver is my number one.

Overall, Gasly has got my highest mean score of 8.67, while the readers have got Gasly at 7.69 on average. Am I being too generous, or does it suggest that the Frenchman’s performances have been underrated? It could probably be argued both ways but, since we’re here, perhaps it’s time to give Gasly his flowers and recognise why he’s been such a star performer this season – and, overall, during his time in F1.

After two years of largely toiling at the back in uncompetitive Alpines, it helps immeasurably that Gasly now has a car in which he can demonstrate his worth. Even so, when encumbered by cars that were points scorers on rare occasions, the Rouen-born racer dug out some great off-the-radar performances that he counted among his best.

Take 2024, for example: the season where Alpine’s overweight car blossomed late on with a steady stream of updates throughout the season. While Gasly claimed third in Brazil, joining former team-mate Esteban Ocon on the podium to rescue the team’s off-colour (literally, given its drab livery) season, this was not his personal choice of season highlight.

Instead, Gasly reckoned his run to 12th in Baku that year was his best display. “Absolutely no one noticed it and it was probably my best race of the year,” he related. “That’s Formula 1 and that’s what can be frustrating at times is I finished that race, I don’t think anyone could have done a better lap than I’ve done for 50 laps in a row there.

“I was pleased and I said, ‘f***, I’m going back home with absolutely zero points, 30 seconds from the top 10.’ It’s pretty tough to find satisfaction in that. But, at the end of the day, I was always trying to come with the same approach and get the best of what you have.”

And that’s been the crux of Gasly’s performances over the past couple of seasons: finding satisfaction and, importantly, motivation in results that appear disappointing on paper. This hasn’t been in a complacent sense, but a pragmatic one; sometimes, finishing 12th holds the same weight as a race win, and it takes an equivalent level of sacrifice and gumption to get there. It becomes easy to forget that, when we consider the competitive nature of the championship.

This year, Gasly has enjoyed stellar turns in China and Japan. Fifth might have been in the offing in Shanghai, had a loss in boost pressure at the restart not cost the Alpine driver position to Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg.

Yet, his drive to seventh in Japan was immaculate and he absorbed every drop of pressure from Max Verstappen across the final half of the race. Australia was also quietly impressive, although Alpine had dropped the ball with set-up and deployment – although it very quickly realised its errors during the grand prix distance.

“I mean it’s not every single weekend I have the chance to fight with a four-time world champion,” Gasly reflected after Suzuka. “I’m glad to be in a position to do it with him.

“I definitely enjoyed the race, because it puts that extra pressure when there is more at stake, who you’re fighting against, and I know I also get the best out of myself in this type of race. I’m very pleased, the pace was good, as I said we were a lot faster than any other car in the midfield.

“And the safety car didn’t even really play in our favour – because I had a bit of a three or four seconds on Max, but it just made it more exciting.”

Gasly held off Max Verstappen throughout the Japanese Grand Prix

Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images

Much of Gasly’s career has been dwarfed by the Red Bull stint that went wrong in 2019. Of course, 2026’s scores are not based on previous results. When it comes to the greater question of how drivers are perceived, however, they do tend to frame drivers in a certain light. The comparison of Gasly to Verstappen in that season is somewhat uncharitable to the former seven years on.

Sure, Gasly left Toro Rosso for Red Bull at a similar point in his career to that of Isack Hadjar this time around, but we’re comparing two very different drivers with two very different mentalities – and, of course, in two very different situations. When Gasly joined, Verstappen had asserted his authority in the team and was happy with the twitchy rear end present in the RB15; Gasly, only used to the benign-handling Toro Rossos of the time, couldn’t cut the mustard. Hadjar, meanwhile, has a car which allows him to get to a similar level as Verstappen…for better, or for worse.

But it’s emblematic of Gasly’s talent and determination that, on rejoining the Italian team, he scored a podium in Brazil and then claimed his first race victory in the following season at Monza. Let’s not forget the colossal emotional weight placed on Gasly by the death of Anthoine Hubert, his close friend who was killed in an F2 race at the same Spa weekend in which Gasly made his Toro Rosso return. One must credit his fortitude to cope with two dreadful situations.

The Alpine move was supposed to be Gasly’s ticket back into the big leagues, but the team’s behind-closed-doors turbulence has stalled out his progression even further. Yet, it seems to be settling down; Alpine no longer has a power deficit following its switch to Mercedes powertrains, and Gasly’s pragmatism over the past two seasons appears to be paying dividends.

By maintaining his motivation, he’s been well placed to take advantage of a car that evidently appears to sit towards the top of the midfield with Haas; on outright pace, the Alpine is probably the stronger contender. The A526 has a few weaknesses with front-end stability, particularly in high speed, but Gasly believes that any fixes here could put Alpine in a position to start pushing the top three teams. 

“It’s not going to happen over the course of the month, but I’d like to see ourselves after the summer break being a bit more of a player in that group with McLaren and Ferrari,” he said. “I think today the gap is still too big for me to really take part in that fight. Seven seconds over 28 laps, you’re looking at three or four tenths…”

Since Gasly’s not put a foot wrong all year and got the most out of his car, I’m happy to stand by my ratings thus far – I do believe he’s the standout driver thus far this year. Antonelli leads the championship, sure, but I’d back Gasly to perform similarly were he imbued with title-challenging machinery.

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– The Autosport.com Team