Power Players: How F1's Pierre Gasly Built a Brand Outside of Racing

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0:42Hey there, welcome back to The Deal. I'm your host, Jason Kelly, flying solo again this week to share a special interview with Formula One driver Pierre Gasly. I got to sit down with Pierre in Paris over the summer for a docuseries I hosted through Bloomberg Originals called Power Players. This season, we dove into the business of F1 and motorsport racing overall, and I was excited to speak with a driver who has really made a name for himself both on and off the track. Pierre has been competing as the lead driver for the Alpine F1 team since 2023, but he made his debut on the grid back in 2017.

1:15As we talked about in the very first episode of my Power Players docuseries, in today's Formula One, drivers aren't just racers. They're global brand ambassadors, technical consultants, and brands unto themselves. Pierre encapsulates that through the deals he's been part of recently. His contract with Alpine anchors a brand empire that spans luxury timepieces, signature sunglasses, and corporate partnerships, names like Reebok and AIX Investment Group. His influence also extends into French football. He has an ownership stake in FC Versailles. And the week I spoke with him, he was in Paris for a fragrance shoot for French fashion brand Givenchy.

1:53That's all on top of the 24 races he competes in around the world every year and the countless hours he spends at Alpine HQ working with the team to make their race car as fast as possible. Pierre Gasly certainly one to watch in the world of athletes turned business people, so I hope you enjoy my conversation with him.

2:22it's such interesting timing to think about you as a business person but also you within the business of formula one you hit it at this moment where a sport that has been popular certainly popular in Europe and other parts of the world, really explodes globally. What has that been like to be a part of that journey and also to participate in your own journey of notoriety and becoming probably more famous than you thought you would ever be? Well, 100%. 100%. I think F1 over the last couple of years has had an incredible ride. You know, social media, streaming platform, you know, Netflix, the series, another F1 movie is coming out.

3:12It just shows how incredible the boom of F1 is going at the minute. And some, yeah, funny stories when I started in Formula One. I remember my first year in Austin going out one night, the restaurant and start talking with someone. And the guy comes and goes, ah, so what are you doing? And I'm like, I am a driver. and first reaction was, yeah, what type of driver? I'm an F1 driver. What is that, like NASCAR? And I remember I fell so many times to explain in the past what F1 was, just like, yeah, that worked, kind of NASCAR, like slightly different. And it just shows, like, in a couple of years, the interest...

3:54Because that was less than 10 years ago, right? That must have been 2017, yeah, 2017, 2018. And in the space of, like, six, seven years, the interest for Formula One, especially in the States, has multiplied by, I don't know, six, seven, eight, you know, like all the Austin, Miami, Vegas, everything's sold out. And the interest of American people in the sport is just huge now. So I think - Because fast forward, sorry to interrupt you, but fast forward from not being recognized, not even understanding what you do in a bar in Austin, a restaurant in Austin, to then this year, 2025, being in Times Square, celebrated, you know, as sort of one of the biggest cultural moments, probably in all of sport and culture.

4:46I think that's one of the biggest evolution in a sport we've seen, like, especially in the last decade. You know, for F1, just to show, obviously it came with some, you know, having definitely a different pathway and access to our sport, we had to open a lot of our doors and show a lot more from what we do within our F1 cycle, but also personally, us as drivers, kind of open the doors on who we are because we get recognised with our helmets on our head because people see a driver, okay, that guy has a yellow helmet, that guy has a blue helmet, and oh yeah, I know this Charles Leclerc guy who comes from Monaco, but in the past they recognised us with the colour of our suit or helmet or our race number, but people don't really see who we are as individuals and we're all humans we all have different personalities we have different interests that we don't get too exposed many times because you know i finish a race an hour and a half full of adrenaline what do you think about the last crash you've just had like five minutes ago you're running high on emotions high on adrenaline what you display of yourself is very different to the guy you are you know on a normal middle of the week as human beings, normal feelings, and with the values that you own.

6:02So I think the sport did very well in showing that side of the drivers, race drivers, and people actually bought a lot more into it, into understanding the dynamics of drivers, teams, team managers, the business behind Formula One, and not only focusing on the track action, but definitely the fan base has grown massively. Yeah. And so as someone who intimately understands the business, you know, you've been in it for a while. You clearly have a business mind. What happens next for the business of Formula One? What does it need to do to continue this sort of momentum? At the moment, I'm focusing on my racing spot, obviously.

6:43There'll be a time where I'm sure I'll have other, you know, interest in the sport in a bigger picture. But I think, you know, that's a good question. I mean, there is a lot to do, and we see F1 as a sport is doing a huge amount. You know, we're just increasing the number of races, the interest from the biggest brands in the world, you know, collaborating with Formula One as a sport, but collaborating with the teams, with the drivers. The interest on a business-wise, I think, has massively increased in terms of opportunities we get just at our level in terms of drivers and collaborations we can do in terms of brands.

7:23So I think F1 is doing very well. The value of the sport is not going to give any numbers out because I'm not too sure about them, but clearly it's doing very, very well. And thanks to people watching, people supporting people's interest in our sport. Right. Adding another team, obviously, coming on the grid. You mentioned something really important, which is brands becoming more and more interested in aligning themselves with teams, with the sport, also, you know, with the drivers. This week, you're going to, you know, do a big project with Givenchy. That's a huge deal for you. How do those sorts of things come to you?

8:04And do you feel like both the power of the sport and your own brand are part of the attraction there? I think being an athlete in 2025 is a huge chance, even more than what it used to be. I think there is a real interest from brands to use top athletes, not only in Formula One, I think at all levels and all type of sports, but to use these figures that people can relate to, that people get inspired from. So I think the more exposure we get as a sport, obviously in Formula One, the more interest these brands will want to collaborate with us. And that's what we see. So obviously, I don't deal with that myself directly.

8:50I got a team around me, which I had to build over time because it's not from the first day I got to F1 that I had all these deals coming straight away on the table. But working over the years and the interest growing, for sure now, I went from a moment where I was looking for deals and opportunities to a moment where you've got to be selective in what you do and be careful in the way that you use your image and the brands that you work with. So there's been a huge evolution and that's why everybody within Formula One is benefiting from an organization point of view, from a team point of view, from a driver point of view, and even from a fan point of view because I think what's out there right now is sport as a better quality and a better access.

9:42And they're able to get more into the sport and into, let's say, our life as an athlete than they were before. And so what's the process that you went through to build that team around you? Because you're a young guy. I mean, you have a huge measure of financial success but also notoriety and visibility. how do you go about choosing the people that are going to be around you? Well, I will say to start, I was one of the few guys to get into Formula One without a management company. I think which, you know, with insight was at his pros and cons as well, in terms of how is it made to get into the sport.

10:26But I've always been someone that needs a huge amount of trust to be able to work with people. especially when it comes to my career, knowing all the sacrifices that went into it. I never felt initially comfortable to give that side of things, which is crucially important to someone I not fully trust. So it took me some years, a lot of meetings, met a lot of people within Formula One until I found the right guy and my manager at the moment. We started after my first year in Formula One and that I've been working with ever since. but it's over the years I had the chance to have my family supporting me a lot my four brothers all the brothers and a very good system that I could rely on and that I could get advice from to make sure that you know I make the right decision I'm obviously someone very driven I know what I want I know exactly where I go but I think it's very important to me also to have feedback and confirmations from people I can trust that they feel the same thing as I do and that you know my project being a Formula One and willing to be a Formula One world champion that everything is aligning in the way that it should and I think I had the chance you know to have the family I have I'm very lucky not everybody gets that chance and that's why I want to contribute you know for young drivers in bringing that sort of support and environment and structure to advice in the best way possible, because it's very easy to make, you know, a wrong decision that could impact a career very negatively and unfortunately have quite big consequences.

12:11So it's extremely important to be surrounded by the right people.

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12:57It's interesting, too, to think about the roster of drivers at any given time in Formula One, because people change teams. You've driven for several teams. There's always some sort of movement. Are there people who are either currently on the grid or maybe previously who you sort of model yourself after, especially when it comes to not just as a driver, but as sort of a more holistic sort of business person? I think it's funny you ask about Formula One because to me, I always learn a lot from meeting people in different environments. So successful people in their industries, whether you're talking business industries, whether you're talking other sports, football, NFL, NBA, let's say it's still in the sport industry, but I really love those conversations I have with them where we can open up as athletes and understanding, well, we know this is quite difficult to manage in a career, whether it's exposure, whether it's fame, whether it's finance, whether it's management, whether it's family, you know, just working your own setup and, you know, keeping everything as safe and controlled as possible.

14:11So we talk a lot and I learned so much from this conversation. I love it because that's where I really feel I'm getting a lot of useful insights I can use in my career in my personal life so not necessarily in Formula One to answer your question we're obviously very close to Charles Leclerc for example I grew up with him and we share so much that is very useful for our career and at least to me for my career and personal life because we're living you know the same type of life but But I love to have those conversations also with people away from the sport where I'll find them as constructive and as useful as the one I have with the people within the sport.

14:53Yeah. You mentioned football. And, you know, obviously you haven't invested in American football yet, but you have invested in a football club right here in France, in Versailles FC. Tell me how that deal came about and why it's interesting to you, especially from an ownership perspective, because endorsing is one thing, but owning is an entirely other thing. Yeah, it's a new project. I've been involved in the FC Versailles for a year now. I think football has always been, you know, there is Formula One in my life, my love for Formula One, but football is right there, is right underneath. So it's been a huge passion since I was a kid.

15:34I played football from the age of six until 11. I had to make a choice and luckily I made the right choice back then between karting or football. Who knows? You can be a world-famous footballer at this point. I can't guarantee you I made the right call. Yeah, but I've always had that will of being involved in football in a way or another growing up, even though I was following that motorsport career path. I was already thinking maybe after my motorsport career I can play football like in a matter-ish level. And I've been a big fan following a lot any football competition in France, European level, World Cup, etc.

16:13watch a lot of games and I've always wanted to have somehow like an input inside the sport and over time over the years again network through Formula One feel very lucky being an F1 driver because it opens so many doors and you know the two other owners of FC Versailles contacted me a year and a half ago knowing that I was you know big big fan of football and having a lot of interest into the sport and yeah the first conversation started in becoming a potential owner and having my input as a you know professional athlete from the experience of my career and what it takes working in this type of environment you know within a team of 1500 people working in between Enstone and France in Formula One and trying to use that experience at a more let's say third division level football and our values match straight away the vision as well match straight away and I had a couple of opportunities to get into football in the last three years but none of them really connected with me or I didn't find myself in those projects and that one became alive a year ago and it's amazing it's amazing inside from a different perspective because I'm an athlete.

17:36I see things as an athlete point of view in Formula 1. Now in football, from a management point of view, things are quite different. We all have our different role within the organization and I'm probably more focused on the sporting and trying to provide those guys the best environment and platform, let's say, an environment where everybody can excel in what they're doing. And And not going to lie, the Ryan Reynolds story with Rexham was also quite inspiring. Sure. And what they did. And it's absolutely incredible to see what they have achieved. And, you know, hopefully one day we can come close to what they're doing.

18:17Yeah. And I'm glad you brought that up because as you were talking, I was thinking about this idea of, you know, you're going into football. that's a relatively new thing that athletes especially current athletes are taking ownership stakes was that sort of an obvious thing you wanted to do because that is a it's sort of a new phenomenon yeah i must say it's becoming more and more common to have athletes joining teams i think for different reasons from not everybody get access to this type of ownership but i think it It depends on the individual and what do they have to bring to the table, what's their intention, what's their background, what's their skill set.

18:59And sometimes it matches. Obviously, there is a question of exposure. As an athlete, we have a huge exposure and there is a real interest now from organization to kind of collaborate with athletes to use that exposure in growing an organization. And, yeah, I think there is a lot of parallels as an athlete in managing your career that can be very useful from an ownership point of view. Yeah. And so with that in mind, is that a bit of a predictor of, you know, what your life might look like when you do stop driving? You know, because, you know, any athlete's career ultimately ends. I know you don't want to think about that right now, but like, as you think well down the line, do you think about sports ownership more?

19:46Do you think about broader business? Like what are your longer term goals when it comes to, you know, the business side of Pierre Gasly? I don't think I'll ever stop driving. You're going to be the oldest F1 driver and then you're going to be driving an F1 car around the circuit at 200 miles an hour at 100 years old. Okay. But when you're not doing that. Well, my career might stop. I'll still be driving something. Yes, that's right. You'll be driving something somewhere. Probably very fast. No, I think it's, yeah, to touch on what you just said, I think it's being aware that, you know, every sportsman's career comes to an end at some point.

20:27And life still carries on for many, many years. And it's not all about those years at the top level of the sport that you're in. It's about what you build. and the question should not come the day you stop because it's already late. And I think I was, again, lucky to be surrounded by the right people to make me aware about that situation and being, you've got to be 100 % focused on what's going on right now, but just prepare the future in a way of you having a platform thanks to your sport and the position I'm in now. I'm given opportunities that may be different in the future once everything ends and the interest will obviously decrease as well.

21:14So it's more like preparing that pathway from the life I'll start once my career ends, not anytime close. But yeah, being aware of that and the way it might look like, you know, time will tell. I obviously have a lot of interest into sport, into the business side of things. You know, I have a lot of ideas in, you know, the sort of industries that I like to be part of. but it's obviously at the moment allowing me time to grow my knowledge about it and making sure I make the right thing because I'm the type of person when I get involved into a project, I'm doing it 100%. So I commit myself 100%.

21:57With FC Versailles, I'm doing it for the long term. I'm not looking at a few years of excitement and thrill and then getting out of it. I'm doing it for the journey. and the journey that comes with it. And that's the way I am. So yeah, there are definitely a lot of projects and industries I like to explore. We live in a time where things evolve extremely fast and technologies, things 10 years ago were very different to what they are now. Seeing myself in F1 for another 10 years and I know in 10 years things will look, the world we will be evolving in will be quite different. So yeah, it's in the back of my mind, but I'm also allowing myself some time to make sure we make the right calls in the future.

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23:22It's interesting, you know, and I say this as someone who, you know, talks to a lot of people like you on a regular basis. You are at it earlier, I think, than a lot of people are. you're approaching it with a level of seriousness that not all do where do you think that comes from i think from ultimately my my family you know having this sort of like work ethics and i think it's also something i've had within me since a very young age so i'm extremely competitive i have a very clear mind in what i want to achieve very harsh on myself and demanding and that's the way I always motivate myself by already from a very young age, not accepting anything less than perfection, which is impossible.

24:10So, you know, I kept hitting a hard wall, always trying to do things better and always trying to achieve a better level and push the boundaries of myself a bit further. And to actually achieve that, I think over time, it was quite harsh, but I've really matured quite quickly and became aware of different things quite early on in my career. But I think growing up also in a family with four older brothers, I've always said it was definitely a luxury because, you know, having older brothers, you can see what they do well, what they do not ideally, and very learned from it from a young age and not too sure there are things that, you know, every individual we have our personalities and that's the way I grew up and probably what the sport taught me and what I learned through my own career.

25:01Yeah, it's interesting that you say that because you're 29 years old and yet, you know, you have to walk into that factory on a good day, on a bad day. And you are, you're the leader of the team and not just the leader of a small team, leader of a big team. You know, a thousand plus people who you're working with, but ultimately need to inspire and motivate in order to get the result that you need. How did you prepare yourself for that? Or was it just something that you had to sort of learn on the job? Yeah, I had to learn on the spot because, I mean, it's obviously I've always been kind of a leader in anything I do since a very young age.

25:41I kind of like the position and the responsibilities of having people on board. And I think that was a chance to play football from a very young age. Once you jump in a go-kart, for example, you're staring at yourself. And it's up to you to go as fast as you can at that given moment. When you play on a pitch, you've got ten of the teammates. You need everybody to do their job correctly. And I felt as a kid already, I had to be behind them, support them, create the right space and the right mindset and push everybody. I quite like that leader position. And I think growing up, I've tried to develop the skills, try to put myself in this type of situation because you're not always given that chance.

26:26And even in Formula One, I wasn't always in a position of leading a team. and it's really a position I embrace where I feel as a driver, I can contribute in a better way. And I feel that's when I'm able to excel in what I do when I get given that space and that structure and environment to actually be myself and try to contribute in my own way. Do you feel pressure? Massive pressure, but if I got to admit, I felt more pressure as a kid going up the ladder of motorsports, not knowing whether from one year to another my entire career was going to stop. It's like I had to win those races from a very young age because I didn't have the funding to make it to the next year.

27:17And if I wouldn't win, I wouldn't be able to find sponsors to carry on. So the pressure I felt as a kid was tremendous. and really became so useful to manage the pressure in Formula One, which is very different, but in a way more manageable from what I've learned in the past all over those early days. How is it different? I'm much more in control. I'm much more aware of who I am and what I'm good at and what I'm bad at, let's say, or bad, let's say, not the best at. And once you know your skill sets, it's easy to use. First of all, it brings you confidence in what you do. So you know the situation that you'll be able to really excel and really bring a lot of positive.

28:08And I know the situations where some of my teammates or people I work with will be better at managing those type of situations. When you're a kid, you don't really have those references. You don't really, you're kind of like figuring yourself along all those years. you try to do good things, but you're not too sure. As a kid, I was like, I want to be in Formula One. I want to be the best, but do I have the skills to actually get there? Well, I think so, but this kid is very fast. This other kid is very fast, and he wants to be in Formula One as much as I want to do, as I want to be there. And I think you have a lot less confidence in those early years.

28:46And then, yeah, over time, I've grown up and kind of figured myself out, and I keep figuring myself out every single day because when I woke up to the factory and got to talk to a thousand people, I try to do what's best, and I try to be as clear and motivational as possible with what I know. But there is a better way of doing things. I don't do it the best way. The intention is the best. I know what I want to, you know, the values and what's behind the stuff I want to say, but no one's perfect. So you're also learning along the way, but with slightly more confidence in what I'm capable of doing.

29:22It is such a fascinating sport, too, because you have competitors all around, including in your own factory. You've got a teammate that you're competing with, as does every other person. How do you balance the needs of the team versus the needs of the driver? That's one of the quintessential questions around your sport. I think it's an amazing question because you've got to figure out when you come in Formula One, you are, let's say, the only driver on equal machinery is your teammates. and you've got to work with him to make the whole team better, but obviously keeping in mind that you want to be the best out of the two.

30:03And then I think it's an amazing dynamic, and I think it's a great question on how we're able to balance that. I think the key thing is understanding by working together, you raise the overall performance of the team, which ultimately will give you the best chances of beating all the other guys, which is the primary goal as a team doesn't matter who wins within the team we want the team to be the best position possible and to achieve that you got to work very closely and very well with with that teammates once you get the max out of the team then you get on track then obviously then comes the competition within you know the rules because there's guidelines that you got respect as teammates.