The huge ‘transfer fee’ Alpine paid Red Bull for Pierre Gasly
Gasly will be in the F1 2023 driver line-up for Alpine after he signed a multi-year deal from Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri.
Nyck de Vries is his replacement at AlphaTauri.
"It was a clear call and definitely very attractive," Gasly told Sky. "It felt the right time for me to take my own start and take my career on my own and start this incredible story with Alpine.
"What's easy in Formula 1? Nothing is easy!" Gasly said. "I must admit I'm very thankful to everyone involved because everybody tried their absolute best to make it happen.
"On Red Bull's side, Christian [Horner, team boss] and Helmut [Marko, team advisor] understood how important, how big this opportunity was to me and my desire to go there and start this new adventure with Alpine."
Gasly added: "It's a big change in my career. I'm closing a nine-year chapter with Red Bull, having had a lot of success in younger categories as well as my five years in Formula 1, my first win, podiums.
"I'm starting a new chapter with Alpine. It's a fresh start."
Gasly will team with Esteban Ocon next season - the French duo have a rocky history but Alpine boss Otmar Szafnauer insists that was taken into consideration.
In the list of 2022 F1 driver salaries, Gasly and Ocon are both estimated to be earning £4.1m ($5m).
But Alpine, without the costly Fernando Alonso who will leave for Aston Martin, are likely to have handed Gasly a bumper new pay packet.
Gasly struggled in Qualifying at the F1 Japanese Grand Prix and will start in 17th, with Ocon fifth.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
