Pierre Gasly has dismissed the Valtteri Bottas rumours swirling around the Formula 1 paddock as “a lot of noise”, urging Alpine to focus on the real challenges ahead.
Despite a difficult start to the 2025 season, the Frenchman remains confident in his performances and the team’s long-term project.
After 12 rounds, Alpine remains rooted to the bottom of the Constructors’ standings with 19 points, 10 points behind Haas one place above.
Gasly has led the charge, with a standout sixth-place finish at Silverstone highlighting his efforts to extract the most from a struggling package.
On the other side of the garage, Franco Colapinto’s tough rookie campaign continued with a crash in qualifying and a DNS at Silverstone.
Still without a point, the Argentine faces growing pressure as speculation links Alpine with a move for Bottas.
Asked whether another experienced driver could help benchmark the team, Gasly dismissed the suggestion and insisted the focus should remain on the job at hand.
“I don’t think that’s the case – I think it’s a lot of noise,” he replied.
“I think the car, I’m showing every weekend what we can do with it, doing a very good job on Saturdays and putting it in places that on paper we all agree we should not really be.
“It’s just tricky, it’s a very tight midfield and we are at the back of it.
“There will always be noise, especially considering what happened earlier in the year, but I think at the end of the day, we should just focus on the work ahead.
“It’s going to be a long season. We don’t have upgrades, the car is not in the best place, but all of us need to focus on what we’ve got to do and try and do it the best way that we can.”
Gasly points to 2026 focus behind Alpine’s struggles
Gasly was also pressed on whether Alpine’s struggles are more down to the car than the drivers, and he acknowledged the razor-thin margins in the midfield have made the challenge even tougher.
“It’s easy to make it sound more dramatic than it is,” he explained. “I think it’s just a very tough field.
“You look a couple of years back, being eight [or] nine-tenths off the fastest car would put you sixth, seventh on the grid.
“This year, being eight [or] nine-tenths slower than the fastest car puts you on the back row.
“I think everyone has done a very good job, we know the strengths and weaknesses of our package.
“We don’t have the strongest car, we don’t have the strongest engine – both combined doesn’t put us in a very good spot.
“But I see a lot of good stuff happening in the team in terms of trying to get the maximum we can.
“We know the focus is on 2026, and it comes with some compromises this year, which are tough to take, but hopefully we see the dividends next year.”
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