'That's how much million Alpine paid to loosen Gasly from Red Bull'
- GPblog.com
Red Bull has been able to cash in big time due to the departure of Pierre Gasly. AlphaTauri already had a contract with the Frenchman for 2023 and that has meant Alpine had to pay handsomely.
Alpine has completed its line-up for 2023 with the arrival of Gasly. This finally brings the soap opera to an end after Fernando Alonso suddenly announced his departure and Oscar Piastri was also found not to have a valid contract for 2023. After all this chaos, Alpine has had to put a hefty sum on the table to bring in 'plan C'.
Substantial sum for Gasly
Indeed, Sky Sports reported that Gasly was acquired by Alpine for $10 million. This bought off the contract at AlphaTauri and allowed Gasly himself to sit down for a deal with the French team. Red Bull thus got the grand prize for a talent that no longer seemed to have a chance of making a return to Red Bull Racing.
Gasly himself was very happy with all the effort Alpine put in for him, which also gave the Frenchman the confidence to make this switch. Nyck de Vries was brought in by AlphaTauri as Gasly's replacement. De Vries comes over from Mercedes where he will be working as F1 team reserve driver and regular driver of the Formula E team in 2022.