The road to and beyond F1: Alpine drivers Gasly and Colapinto talk investments and driver academies
Pierre Gasly has raced in F1 for eight years, while Franco Colapinto is still making his mark
[SINGAPORE] Formula 1 (F1) drivers have always had to fight and grind their way to secure one of the 20 highly coveted seats in the fastest motorsport in the world, and Alpine F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto are no exceptions.
Now a confident driver, the 29-year-old Gasly made his debut in 2017 with Toro Rosso as part of the Red Bull Junior Team that will have seven graduates on the Singapore Grand Prix grid on Sunday (Oct 5).
His teammate, the comparatively soft-spoken Franco Colapinto, 22, only made his debut last year, having come up through the Williams Racing Driver Academy.
Singapore’s Kabir Anurag, currently racing in the Italian Formula 4 championship and soon to move to the higher-tier GB3, is also pushing for his F1 dream as part of the Alpine Academy.
Getting to F1 can cost anywhere from US$5 million to more than US$10 million, even with sponsorships, and self-funding is nearly impossible.
Driver development accelerates in F1 teams’ academies
Speaking to The Business Times at the Paddock Club on Thursday (Oct 2), Colapinto drew comparisons between his journey and that of someone like Anurag.
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“From Argentina, we are so far away, or even from here if you want to drive in Formula 1 from Singapore, Thailand... you are so far away in Europe,” said the Argentine, pointing to how he left home at the age of 13. “That’s what it takes to achieve your dream, of course.”
Colapinto added that he was following Anurag and the other Alpine Academy drivers’ development, saying that they were all doing “very well” and even sometimes used the Alpine F1 simulator in France for their preparation.
With the cut-throat competition to get to F1, being part of an F1 academy can prove crucial to driver development. Even though Colapinto said he felt the step up from junior series to F1 largely just involved faster and larger cars, his time in the Williams academy was vital to his development.
“I will always recommend to have an F1 team behind you,” he said.
A life outside and beyond F1
Not only is getting to the top-level prohibitively expensive, an F1 driver’s career can be as short as two months-long, as Colapinto’s predecessor Jack Doohan found out in May this year.
Gasly, for his part, has already been building up his interest in industries outside of F1 as a way to decompress from his day job.
Describing himself as a “very curious” person, the Frenchman explained that he needs something like a “hustle” outside of F1 to maximise his potential on the track.
Gasly is a co-owner of semi-professional French football club FC Versailles 78, has invested in English energy drink company Mission, and even helped design two watches with luxury watchmaker luxury watchmaker Moser.
“I’m someone that wants to evolve and grow my knoweledge (beyond F1),” said Gasly. “I don’t want to only be like sort of a race-car driver that can only talk about cars.”
He added that his interest and investments were linked to a family member that works in finance, calling the field “fascinating” and stating that he had a “strong interest” in developing that part of his life.
Gasly, who is estimated to make US$10 million annually and recently signed a new contract, said his day job gives him the benefits of making connections with people across many industries and the cashflow to make more investments.
“Now, I have a limited amount of time but it’s important that I use it well,” he said, adding that it was something he also wanted to develop after he calls time on his racing career.
The Singapore Grand Prix weekend began with the practice session on Friday, with the 18th edition of the night race set to flag off at 8 pm on Sunday.
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