Pierre Gasly was allowed to leave AlphaTauri over concerns for his future in Formula 1 if he stayed, according to team boss Franz Tost.
The Frenchman was involved in a particularly memorable F1 silly season last year, as Alpine's third attempt to sign a driver up for 2023 finally paid off. The team wanted to keep Fernando Alonso but the Spaniard chose to leave, while their original backup plan fell apart when reserve Oscar Piastri turned down the seat and joined McLaren.
So they turned to Gasly, but he was only allowed to leave by AlphaTauri once an exciting enough replacement was secured. Colton Herta had his F1 move blocked by the FIA because he did not have enough points for a superlicence, so the Red Bull operation turned instead to Nyck de Vries.
