ANALYSIS: Why Alpine were keen to lock down Gasly for the next stage of their project

Alpine sprung a surprise on Saturday morning as they announced Pierre Gasly has agreed to further extend his contract by inking a new deal that will keep him with the French manufacturer until at least 2028. F1 Correspondent Lawrence Barretto explains more...

Gasly left the Red Bull family to join Alpine in a then all-French line-up with Esteban Ocon ahead of the 2023 season – and has since evolved into a fast and consistent team leader who this season has scored all 20 of the French squad's points through four top-10 Grand Prix finishes.

The second seat has failed to yield a point, first through Jack Doohan, now with Franco Colapinto – and thus Gasly has offered Alpine, who are currently at the bottom of the Teams' Standings, some much-needed consistency and a real barometer for the engineers to judge the car's ultimate performance.