Pierre Gasly made two appearances at the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb on Thursday, first with theAlpine A110 Future, then with the E20, the 2012 single-seater of the Enstone team.
Returning to Goodwood after several years’ absence, Pierre Gasly was able to rediscover this Thursday morning the legendary hill climb race where cars and motorcycles take turns throughout the weekend. For his first run, the Norman was able to get behind the wheel of theAlpine A110 Future, the prototype of the all-electric future of the famous berlinetta, with two independent motors on the rear wheels.
And what better way to kick off the 2026 season than by driving along that stretch of tarmac with the owner of the venue, the Duke of Richmond himself? A truly spectacular start for Gasly, as he explained to the fan zone microphone…
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“It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Goodwood, so to be able to come back and see everyone here, all the cars too, I feel like a kid in a candy store! It’s really great to be here. I got to drive up the hill in the A110 Future, the electric sports car from…”AlpineAnd having the Duke by my side was truly fantastic. In the afternoon, I was pretty much back in the kind of cars I’m used to driving, the F1 to the V8, which is inevitably a bit noisier!
Gasly was therefore able to tackle hill climb racing in what was known at the time as the Lotus E20, driven in its day by Kimi Räikkönen and Romain GrosjeanThe sound of the V8 engine naturally resonated through the already crowded stands.
With the theme of the 2026 Festival of Speed being rivalries, Pierre Gasly couldn’t avoid talking about what will undoubtedly remain the most iconic rivalry in Formula 1 history, between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost : “I loved the rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. I greatly admired both drivers, for different reasons. Alain is the best French driver in the history of F1; he was an excellent example for all of us. As for Senna, what I admired, besides the driver and his talent, was what he represented for his entire community outside of F1, the aura he had, and his unique personality. The battles they gave us on the track were among the most iconic in F1.”
“Work to be done” for Alpine
The driver with number 10 also reflected on the last Grand Prix contested by Alpine, last weekend at Silverstone. Although the A526s of Gasly and Franco Colapinto were less comfortable than at the start of the season, they still managed to avoid incidents to both finish in the points on Sunday.
“Overall, it was a rather difficult weekend, and after a good start to the season where we were able to score points in the first few races, then the podium in Monaco, we lost a bit of pace in the last two or three weekends. I struggled to finish in the top 10 as often as I would have liked. There’s still work to be done; at Silverstone, things didn’t seem to be clicking, but with everything that happened, we managed to get both cars into the points. Ultimately, it was positive, and I hope we’ll be a bit more competitive at Spa.”
