Pierre Gasly the perfect candidate to have replaced Alonso at Alpine - team boss

Alpine team boss Otmar Szafnauer said Pierre Gasly had been chosen to replace Fernando Alonso due to meeting all the team's criteria to a tee.

The news that AlphaTauri driver Gasly would replace Alonso, who is joining Aston Martin, was announced over the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

When Szafnauer was asked how the decision to hire Gasly had come about, he replied: "Well, we had, as everyone knows, we had a seat available around the summer break, and then we started looking around as to who would be a best fit, and we had some criteria to work to.

"And the three things we wanted was, naturally, speed: a fast driver; one with experience and also youth at the same time. Adding all three things up, there aren't many people that have all that, and Pierre definitely does.

"We thought he was a great fit for us. So, we put him on our shortlist and then went about getting it done."

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Looking for a replacement

The Alpine boss was then asked when they started looking for Alonso's replacement, and he answered: "It was maybe a week or so. Not even. I mean, shortlist first.

"When it looked like Oscar (Piastri) wasn't 100% certain with some of the contractual issues that we had, then we started working on a shortlist of who else it could be, and Pierre was on it," he added.

Daniel Ricciardo had been linked to joining Alpine at one stage, and Szafnauer admitted there had been a list of drivers that were discussed.

"Well, you know, at the beginning, we discussed with a few drivers, including Daniel, and, you know, Pierre meets the criteria that I said to a tee.

"He's experienced, fast, and young. So, when it became evident that Pierre was a