After the announcement on Thursday of the Hungarian Grand Prix that Sebastian Vettel would give up his Formula 1 career after the season, AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly also commented on Vettel. Through their Red Bull past, a “close relationship” has developed between the two over the years.
“Formula 1 will definitely miss him because first of all he is a legend of the sport,” says Gasly. “If you just look at the numbers: four world championships, the number of wins and all the pole positions. He’s a pretty loud personality who’s respected in the paddock, so I think everyone will miss him.”
Gasly saw Vettel as his mentor after struggling in the early stages of his Formula 1 career: “When I joined the Red Bull program I had the chance to get closer to him in his final season at Red Bull and to see how hard he tried and how committed he was to the team for the sport.”
How five minutes turned into 1.5 hours
“And I always remember when I won my GP2 title and didn’t immediately move up to Formula 1, I was in Singapore at the time. And I remember calling him one evening. It only took me five minutes to Hearing his opinion, getting his perspective and getting some advice on how to deal with the situation at Red Bull and it turned into an hour and a half conversation.”
“And at that time he was a Formula 1 driver driving for Ferrari. The priority for me was very, very low but he still took 90 minutes to talk to me and give me advice, how to deal with the situation and with Red Bull. He gave me advice on how to improve the situation.”
“I’ll always be very, very grateful to him for that. And after that we’ve always had quite a close relationship. We’ve had dinner together a couple of times. And I think he’s a fantastic driver, but also a great person,” he said Gasly.
Gasly: Vettel also called after the Monza victory
In what was probably his most difficult phase in Formula 1, as Max Verstappen’s teammate at Red Bull, the two did not exchange ideas: “No, not really at the time,” confirms Gasly. “But before that, yes. And then of course we talked about the situation for a few days, but never really in depth.”
When Gasly won his first Formula 1 race with AlphaTauri a year later in Monza, this time it was Vettel who picked up the phone: “He called me after the race to congratulate me and to tell me that he was happy for Franz that he won in the wet and also in the dry, so under two different conditions.”
“But yeah, he was really happy for me. I think we’ve always gotten along really well. We have some, I would say, similar traits. Not all, but some are similar and I think that’s why we have too much respect for each other.”
Vettel wasn’t the only surprise on the phone after the victory in Italy, as Gasly says: “The French President, that was quite unexpected. He called me in the middle of the debriefing, so I didn’t hear the call.”
“When I came out and he left me a voice message, it was kind of weird to hear his voice calling my name and just say, ‘Hi, this is Mr. Macron, your President.’ That gave me goosebumps.”