In a parallel universe, Pierre Gasly is a professional football player often daydreaming about how far he could have gone in racing, if he had only continued his career in karting. In this universe, however, the French F1 driver every so often wonders if he could be playing for his favourite club, Paris Saint-Germain, had he made a different decision in his teenage years.

If you follow Pierre Gasly on Instagram, you know the 28 year old from Rouen is a huge fan of football. (“Don’t write ‘soccer’,” Gasly’s manager Guillaume Le Goff jokingly warned me.) The number on Gasly’s car, 10, is an homage to legendary French footballer Zinedine Zidane, who wore it for much of his international career. Gasly regularly strolls the paddock in football shirts, including Paris Saint-Germain’s and the French national team’s. He organizes matches played with Alpine colleagues to blow off steam after a long day at the track (they’ll play in a 30,000-seat stadium in Mexico City, Alpine’s press officer tells me). And in the ultimate fan move, Gasly became part owner of FC Versailles, a semi-pro club in France’s third-tier league, this past March.

Gasly started playing football at age 5. “I loved it,” he tells me with a huge smile on his face. “Honestly, I’m still dreaming about it. The sport itself, actually playing ball and being with my teammates. And the whole atmosphere of being with your team, going to places and challenging other teams from other cities. I loved every single moment of it.”

“Even this morning I was saying: I think the day that I retire from F1, I’ll enter a veteran team or an old men’s club just to play. Because it’s really a big, big passion of mine.”

Before Alpine’s PR lead snatched Gasly’s ball and pulled him away for another interview, we talked about investing in a pro team, being forced to choose between his two loves as a teenager, and having a life outside Formula 1.

You told me once that you had a “good level” when you played football as a kid. What would you qualify as a “good level”?

Well, I clearly lost it! [Ed note: Gasly’s attempts to show off his football skills shortly before the interview did not quite rise to “a good level”.] But back then, I was good with the ball. We went to the French Cup and did well in the qualifiers for just a small club.

One day we went to the formation in Auxerre, which at the time was the winner of the French championship. And they had a very famous manager back then, Guy Roux, who I got to meet. And I got in the selection for the French academy.

I always used to run a lot. I was a winger. Until 11 I was playing half pitch, and as a winger I was going from attack to defense, attack to defense. So, actually that was really good for me, because I built up a very, very good cardio. I was putting as much effort in karting as in football.

When you were 6 years old, you started karting as well. How did you manage football, karting, and school?

So when I was 6 or 7 — I can’t remember exactly — the school actually offered my parents [the opportunity] for me to jump a year, because I had very good grades and they estimated that I could go a year ahead of what I was. And I think my parents were quite smart to say: “Well, we rather want him to stick [to his current year] and have it easy at what he does now at school, because that will free more time for him to do sports.” I could dedicate the rest of my time to karting and football. And I could manage it pretty well.

When I started to do karting competitions at 9, then it started to become more complicated with football. When I was 10 or 11, I started to miss a few practices here and there. And because of the races, I couldn’t go to all of the games. I remember I came for a game on Sunday and the coach was not happy that I was focusing more on karting than on football. And he told me as a punishment he would put me in the second team. And I said: “Fuck that, I’m not playing for the second team.” And I just stopped on that day.

That must have been a hard decision.

I said to myself: OK, I basically need to choose. But in my mind it was already clear. Even though they are my two biggest passions, my love for karting and racing was a touch bigger. And also, I think I was slightly more competitive in karting than in football — the first was bringing me more trophies. It got to a point where I could see I couldn’t do both at my best. And I wasn’t fine with that.

Are there any things you’ve learned in football that you benefit from in motorsport? You mentioned the cardio…

Cardio is definitely one. But also team spirit and being supportive of each other. In football sometimes you’ve got to make an extra effort to compensate for a teammate’s mistake. Or sometimes you do a mistake and then someone needs to have your back. And then, in the locker room, even if you are kids, you start building bonds between each other and you understand that your best games are actually the ones when there is a nice synergy between everyone.

To a bigger scale in F1, it’s the same, you know. When we are in the engineering room, it’s like a football locker room. The only difference is that everyone is dressed up in the engineering room. But also in Formula 1, you’ve got to get everyone together and very united as a team, and you’ve got to be very transparent and honest, and you’ve got to have everybody working towards the same target. So I think that team mentality was very good to have from a young age.

Karting is more individual. At the time it was only my dad and myself. So you’re not really looking after a team behind you. But on Wednesday, I would go to a game or practice and then I’d be with other kids and I had to understand that I needed to fit in and have that team spirit.

And also, sport in general just brings that structure in your life. Like, practice is at six… you have to be there at six. You have to do every exercise, follow the process and do the practice to get better and stronger. So when you’re a kid — you don’t necessarily see it then — but it does bring some structure to your work, which is essential in whatever you do later on.

“I need more than just Formula 1 in my life to get me mentally balanced and
in a happy place.”

Earlier this year you decided to invest in FC Versailles. How did that come about?

As a big football fan, I’ve always somehow wanted to be involved in the sport. Obviously, I wasn’t going to be involved as a player. But I always had in the back of my head that if one day an attractive offer would come up, I would find a way to be involved.

The owner who took over FC Versailles last year reached out to me at the end of last year because he saw that I was so into football — that I was going to a lot of games and watching a lot of football. They explained to me their project, their vision for the club, and what they wanted to do and how. And then they asked me if I was keen on coming and joining them on this project.

Obviously, football is a very complex sport. But given my knowledge of my sport and my experience of working in a high performance environment, they were quite keen to understand the standards of F1 and how things work here, and somehow use some of that knowledge and introduce some of those standards at the club.

And as an athlete, I think this is also an area where I bring them a lot. I try to put myself in the player’s position. I can say: as an athlete, me personally, I need this and this and this to be looked after. Where, generally speaking, owners probably don’t look so much at those things. They probably look at it more as a business, so they sometimes miss a little bit of the player side of things. But when you know how you can extract the maximum out of the guys, that actually brings performance on the pitch. So it’s a lot of interesting conversations. And a different angle to football, which I didn’t have before but which I actually enjoy a lot.

I think value-wise, we really matched. I had a very good connection with the two other owners [Alexandre Mulliez and Fabien Lazare]. And then I was like, OK, that’s definitely a very attractive project. And more for the long term as well. I need more than just Formula 1 in my life to get me mentally balanced and in a happy place. And this is just something that I love following, besides Formula 1.

Obviously, I’m not involved on a day-to-day basis, but every week we have a catch-up. And if they are playing, I watch the game. I’m very proud to be part of it.

Photo by: Michael Potts / Motorsport Images

What are your ambitions for FC Versailles? Can it be a success story like Wrexham A.F.C., which climbed from the fifth division in the English football league system to the third-tier League One?

I mean, we are in the third division. The target for the short term is to get into the second division, which is obviously very difficult because it’s very competitive. Football is so big, you have a lot of clubs with big budgets and big structures. So it’s a good challenge, but we’re not going to hide from it. For us, it’s clear that we want to get in that second division. And mid-to-long term, to get in the first division, which is a big jump that hopefully in a few years time we’ll be able to make.

Speaking of Wrexham: actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who bought the club in 2020, joined the Alpine F1 team as investors last year. Did you seek their advice before investing in FC Versailles?

No, but I clearly got inspired by that story with Ryan and Wrexham. As a football fan, I obviously followed his journey with Wrexham. It’s a similar type of story with me. [Football] is not my industry. And I’m going in with some other people who are not actually coming from football as well. And yeah, I’d love to have a Wrexham versus Versailles friendly game at some point!

Have you also considered making a documentary series about FC Versailles, like “Welcome to Wrexham”?

So that’s in the pipeline, because yeah — you need exposure, you need sponsors. The more money you have, the better infrastructure you have, the better performance you’ll get out of the guys. So we have to promote our team the best way possible. But to be fair, there is a great team looking after it and they’re doing a very good job. Hopefully the ambitions and the results can follow each other.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

The FIM has announced a MotoGP engine freeze for the 2025 and 2026 seasons.

As reported by Motorsport.com last month, the MotoGP world championship will stop engine development for the next two seasons, before the new regulations come into force in the top class of motorcycle racing from 2027.

This will allow manufacturers to focus on preparing bikes for the new regulations, without having to invest in engine development after the beginning of the 2025 season.

Under the current rules, manufacturers could submit completely new engines before the first Grand Prix of each season. These were sealed and could no longer be modified for the rest of the year.

With the engine freeze now agreed unanimously by all the manufacturers, the sample engine that each team submits on Thursday at the 2025 Thai Grand Prix, the first round on next year’s calendar, will be identical to the ones they use all season. They will be limited to eight engines for each year’s racing.

Exempt from the freeze will be the two manufacturers who currently enjoy concessions, namely Honda and Yamaha. Their concessions status is only likely to change if there is a dramatic improvement in their results over the final few rounds of this season.

Both factory and private teams will be subject to the freeze ahead of 2027, when the current 1000cc engine formula will be cut to 850cc. This will be accompanied by a considerable restriction of aerodynamic elements and other devices, such as the ride height adjusters. The latter will essentially disappear, apart from those used specifically for race starts.

Race start

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The move makes sense given the desire of the championship’s governing bodies to limit investment by the factories with only two seasons left before the current technical framework changes.

This is not the first time that MotoGP’s highest decision-making body has played the engine freeze card to contain spending and stabilise budgets. The most recent case of this measure being taken was during the pandemic, specifically the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

In August 2020, Yamaha asked for permission to open the M1 engines of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, claiming there was a problem with the valves. That request led to considerable distrust from the other representatives of the Manufacturers’ Association (MSMA).

In the FIM statement announcing the engine freeze, it confirmed changes for safety or reliability would be permitted if no performance gain can be proven.

“Engine specification in the MotoGP class will be frozen for 2026, requiring all manufacturers to use their 2025 specification the following season. This is in order to control costs and maximise parity ahead of the introduction of the new regulations in 2027,” the FIM statement read.

“Certain allowances may be made concerning corrections for safety or reliability, or proven nonavailability of components, providing no performance increase will be gained.”

Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has conceded Red Bull couldn’t have been expected to keep all of its key members together amid a string of high-profile departures in recent weeks.

Off the back of designer Adrian Newey announcing his exit in May – and since signing for Aston Martin – Red Bull will also see sporting director Jonathan Wheatley leave for Sauber/Audi and head of strategy Will Courtenay join McLaren in the future.

Their departures come after a tumultuous year for Red Bull off the track. Tensions behind the scenes at the management level first surfaced around pre-season testing in Bahrain, when an investigation against alleged wrongdoing by team boss Christian Horner – a case which has since been dismissed – spilt out into the public domain.

Before that, Red Bull had already lost designer Rob Marshall, who is now playing an influential role at its 2024 title rival McLaren.

At the time Verstappen warned against the prospect of losing what he called “pillars” of Red Bull’s success story leaving the squad because of its inner turmoil, especially when his mentor Helmut Marko’s position was called into question.

“I’m also part of this trajectory. I signed until 2028, so it’s very important that certain pillars remain in place,” he explained at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Speaking to Motorsport.com six months later in Singapore, it is clear that that hasn’t happened, with Red Bull now opting to promote from within the fill the voids left by its outgoing staffers. Verstappen’s long-time race engineer GianPiero Lambiase is one member being entrusted with wider responsibilities under its revised management structure.

But Verstappen now acknowledges Red Bull was always going to struggle to keep its world championship-winning team together, with rivals aggressively trying to poach key figures. “Well, we didn’t manage that too well!”, Verstappen laughed, before offering a more measured response.

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Manager, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“As I always said, I would have preferred if everyone had stayed, but in the end, you can’t stop people. If you force them to stay when they don’t really want to be here anymore, if they are disappointed or don’t fully get what they want, then maybe it’s better for them to take up a new challenge elsewhere. Even if for the whole team collectively, it would have been better if everything had stayed the way it was.

“It’s always been like that with successful teams, people will start picking them apart. You see that in any sport. And some people get such big offers from other teams that that plays a role as well.”

Other key figures like head of performance engineering Ben Waterhouse and head of aerodynamics Enrico Balbo did extend their contracts earlier this year.

Verstappen is therefore confident that Red Bull has the right technical leadership in place to drive the team forward in its post-Newey era, and says he enjoys a strong relationship with technical director Pierre Wache.

“It’s very good, Pierre and I talk a lot,” he explained. “When I’m in the factory, I always have a meeting with him. He’s very motivated and I enjoy being involved. Things are working quite well, it’s just that the results aren’t what we want right now. It’s up to us to turn that around as a team.

“I have faith that people know what they’re doing, they’ve already shown that. Other teams have very good people too, but I don’t think that’s the issue right now. We just took a wrong turn, so it was time to hit the reset button and go in a different direction.

“At the end of the day it’s not just two or three people who make the difference. It’s about the collective. Everyone has to chip in and work well within their role, that’s the most important thing.”

Supercars has revealed a new season format from next year with Finals rounding out the campaign to decide the 2025 champion.

The Australian series will switch to a three-stage split season, with the opening eight rounds counting for a Sprint Cup and the two endurance races determining an Enduro Cup champion, before the Finals format kicks in.

There will also be a point resets, with all 10 drivers going to the first Finals race on the Gold Coast level on 3000 points, and then 4000 for the next race, at Sandown.

Any driver who wins on the Gold Coast and Sandown will be automatically seeded into the final four to remain in title contention for Adelaide, along with the next two highest point-scorers.

Will it prove a success for the series? Our writers offer their views.

A brave change, but with damaging potential – Phil Branagan

The notion of shaking up the method to determine a champion is a positive one and I tip my hat to Supercars for being brave about that. But as Jim Hacker taught us in ‘Yes, Prime Minister’, bravery can have its consequences.

Some scenarios could expand from a micro concern to a macro nightmare under the new system. As an example, I am going to pick (on) current points leader and 2024 title favourite Will Brown. If the Triple Eight Chevrolet driver has a solid Bathurst 1000 result this weekend he could be leading the championship points going into the next round on the Gold Coast – and if some of his challengers do not dazzle at Bathurst Brown’s lead well may be one entire round’s points (300) or more.

Will Brown, Triple Eight Race Engineering Chevrolet Camaro ZL1

Photo by: Edge Photographics

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Imagine that Brown dominates qualifying on the Gold Coast but in the top 10 shootout, a locked wheel sends him wide, he misses a chicane and will therefore start the first race from 10th on the grid. The Gold Coast street circuit has a reputation for punishing errors; if from there Brown gets caught up in a lap 1 melee, he could be out for the day. Zero points.

Provided he can bounce back on Sunday, that may not be a huge setback. With a podium or a win he could/should even maintain his points lead going to the final race of this season in Adelaide.

Fast forward that same scenario to 2025. Brown could even win the Sunday race on the Gold Coast but imagine for a moment that a ‘finalist’ Ford driver further back in the field may face finishing eighth, ninth or 10th of the title contenders for the weekend, thereby saving Brown. Might other Ford drivers, loyal to the blue oval and themselves not in title contention, drive with a level of co-operation they may not do otherwise to ensure their mate is in the top seven and Brown is one of the three drivers eliminated, post-Gold Coast Far fetched? Could it happen? Maybe.

The Finals concept is bound to generate lots of storylines. That’s good for Supercars (and great for someone like me). But not all of those stories are going to be positive…

A cynical change at a convenient time – Sam Hall

My initial reaction to Supercars’ shift to a Finals format was simply: why? Granted, having a championship battle that goes to the wire is something that every series strives for and would add intrigue and viewing figures, but sometimes you have to accept that one team or driver will dominate and applaud that achievement.

While there are undoubted positives and it could catch the public’s imagination, it is impossible to shift the purist within me that believes motorsport should be a meritocracy, and should not artificially come down to a botched pitstop or a reliability problem – even driver error – at a single event.

Yes, there are other sports that have this format, NASCAR as the most high-profile example, but it just doesn’t sit right for me on a personal level.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr, JTG Daugherty Racing, Kroger Health/Palmolive Chevrolet Camaro

Photo by: Matthew T. Thacker / NKP / Motorsport Images

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It is the timing of this change that must be looked at closely, however. The broadcast deal expires at the end of 2025 and the introduction of the Gen3 cars has hardly provided the most entertaining racing.

It is then crucial that Supercars provides a better product, and rather than answer why these apparently equal machines appear not so equal on the track and what fundamental issues the series has, the quick fix of a Finals system has been implemented – something which brings with it extra sponsorship and marketing opportunities.

For all my negativity towards this, it should be added that I really do hope this works and I am made to eat my words 12 months from now. Supercars needs something to inject excitement back into the category and, even if this is not to my taste and seems more of a marketing exercise rather than a sporting decision, if it works, I’ll be as happy as anyone.

Surprised the change hasn’t happened sooner – Tom Howard

Having previously lived in Australia and worked in Supercars I’m actually surprised this change hasn’t happened sooner. Australian sport has a peculiar obsession with this ‘Finals Series’ format. It happens in AFL, NRL and the A-League. It was a hard concept for a Brit to get ones head around for sure. Imagine the English Premier League champions being decided by a one-off final instead of 38 games, it’s unheard of, but that is the case for the majority of sporting codes in Australia.

I agree this is not a change that will be loved by the purist and certainly Supercars fans have proven to be opposed to change in the past. I recall when Triple Eight dared to develop a V6 engine to replace the V8 creating complete uproar, and ultimately the V8 engine won out and is still in place today.

But the motorsport landscape is changing and certainly the way fans are interacting with championships. Sometimes taking a big swing at a format change can work. Supercars has tried tweaking formats before, some have worked, some have failed. But equally sitting still is not really option anymore given how fast the sporting landscape is changing and how people watch sport now.

Jake Hill, Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport

Photo by: JEP

Last weekend I attended the British Touring Car Championship final round at Brands Hatch which once again provided edge of the seat entertainment to determine its champion.

Granted its format does not represent the levels of sweeping change that Supercars will adopt in 2025, but its reverse grid race three and its hybrid usage scale determined on driver success that has replaced success ballast, does usually mean nine times out of 10 the championship will be decided at the final round. I have to say it is a great watch. Last weekend the eventual champion Jake Hill and rival Tom Ingram headed into the final race with a point separating them. Format changes can work for the better, but also the opposite can occur.

The World Rally Championship offers a great example. This year it has operated a new points system that is complicated for the fans to understand, but it has created vastly more entertaining Sundays. There will always be trade-offs with format changes.

I think it is brave of Supercars to make such a change. It will be a bit like Marmite or Vegemite (the former is better) some will love it, some will hate it. What is for certain is the Adelaide Grand Final will be must watch motorsport.

Michael Andretti’s decision to step down from running his race team on a day-to-day basis will have no immediate bearing on its bid to join the Formula 1 grid.

Motorsport.com has learned that Andretti’s Silverstone factory continues to recruit staff in a bid to have a full 2026 chassis ready before the New Year.

Former F1 and IndyCar driver Andretti has built one of the most successful motorsport teams across the world and is currently competing in multiple championships.

But he has failed in bids for his team to race in F1 by first failing to acquire Sauber before seeing his plans for an 11th team halted by F1.

Andretti’s application had initially received the green light from the FIA in October 2023 before the governing body performed a u-turn on its decision along with a rejection from Formula One Management in January this year,  rather brutally saying it believed the team would not be competitive or add value to the championship.

The news was a blow to Andretti, which had formed a new F1 base at Silverstone with a view of competing in F1 from the 2025 season onwards.

Confusingly, despite having a remit to grow the sport, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who had previously led calls for more teams on the grid, recently urged Andretti and its partners, General Motors in the form of its Cadillac brand, to “go and buy another team, not to come as the 11th team”.

Photo by: Alexander Trienitz / Motorsport Images

After Andretti’s shock departure, insiders say this is not as a consequence of the failed bid to enter F1 and that plans are still going ahead in the hope of getting the approval to race in 2026.

In a bid to ensure the team is ready should it be granted permission to join the F1 grid, the Andretti operation is still operating as usual.

The team has been growing at an average of seven new starters every week and now totals over 260 full-time people working on the project

Furthermore, the team is working 16-hour days in the wind tunnel in Cologne, as it is not yet bound by F1 testing restrictions and is developing parts such as nose cones and wishbones that have been crash-tested at the FIA-approved F1 crash testing facility at Cranfield.

The team is also working on suspension and braking systems and roll hoop constructions for the 2026 regulations.

In another huge step, the team hopes to have its first chassis out of the mould before January – well in advance of some of their rivals.

Andretti is now hoping for both the FIA and FOM to revise the decision to prevent them from joining F1 as an 11th team.

In stepping back, what Andretti has done is remove himself from the equation, having drawn particular heat from F1 and rival team bosses.

By handing the operation over to Dan Towriss, the new-look team could look to speed up the process to become a GM works team with its own engine from 2028, something that F1 had stipulated in its rejection letter.

What now remains to be seen is if the new ownership – without Andretti at the helm – or indeed the Andretti name at all – go back to FOM with a second attempt at making the cut.

The four-inch curbing at Turn 16 is no more, just hours before the start of Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series elimination race at Charlotte. The corner apex, which was extended before the race weekend, created a narrower final corner.

Commonly called ‘turtles’ or ‘sausage kerbs’ elsewhere in the world, drivers were aggressively running over the top of the curbs during practice in qualifying, and later complained about how violent the hits were. For example, Martin Truex Jr. compared it to getting a concussion.

As a result, NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports have replaced the red and white curbing with rumble strips that are just 2.25 inches from the track surface. A similar move was made at the bus stop chicane at Watkins Glen between 2023 and 2024 for the same reason. 

Updated rumble strips to Turn 16

Drivers will be held accountable for abusing track limits across the new curbing. Vehicles must run the full course at all times and a driver will be penalized for cutting the final chicane in the following situation: “You will be judged as missing or short-cutting any turn previously described when all four tires on the non-track side of the red and white rumble strips that define the apex of the turns.”

Similar to when drivers miss either the frontstretch or backstretch chicane, they must then come to a full stop at one of the designated locations or face a pass-through penalty. If there’s not enough time left in the race, a 30-second time penalty will be assessed.