Stand By Me - Pierre Gasly

DEUX/PIERRE/

I had an almost perfect childhood. Two parents who invested all their energy and money in my future, and four brothers with whom bloody battles always took place on Rouen's tiny but all the more lovable go-kart track, but in the end I usually overcame me as the winner.

Around the age of five, my father began to develop the idea of what it would be like to take go-karting to a more serious level than I did, which I loved with all my heart even then and spent as much time on the track as possible.

Around the age of ten, I was already there to take part in several French races, fighting for the win.

After a while, when I had grown out of this atmosphere, I took part in the European Championships organized by the FIA, and here I met several of my current fellow pilots, Max, Charles, Estebant and Carlos. Unfortunately, my first year didn't turn out so brilliantly, but for the next season, I was able to win second place, gathering all my strength and concentration, thanks to the unceasing support of my family.

Then came the various Formula Renault races, which was a huge step in my life, considering that I was able to drive enough Formula 1 cars here and simply loved it. Even then, I couldn't believe how far I had come, as very few of the go-kart riders were given the opportunity to move up to the next categories, but I did.

At the age of seventeen, I received one of the best offers of my life after winning the Formula Renault championship. In the midst of huge celebrations, a tall, relatively old man approached me, shook hands with me, and then out of nowhere told me that I would have the urge to be a member of the Red Bull Junior Team.

I remember my whole body trembling, I couldn't even speak, luckily Dad took the floor for me and so I became a member of the Red Bull family.

A series of training camps and trainings started, and I felt that with each race and training I was getting closer to my goal, which of course was Formula 1.

Two years later, when I was officially a permanent test driver for Red Bull, I got a seat from Prema Racing in Formula 2, then called GP2, which was another huge step in my life.

The race weekend in Silverstone was nowhere near as I expected. I still remember that particular Friday where we were just heading to the field with my mom and coach. All three of us were excited about the race, as I had a great chance of winning the race, so I could have pocketed as many points as possible.

Everything happened so fast. One moment I was still showing my helmet painting planned for the weekend to my mom sitting next to me from the middle of the back row of seats, and the next we were already hitting the wall with a huge force after hearing the driver shout. I squeezed my eyes as much as possible from the force of the blow and the fear, but when I didn't feel any pain, I opened them.

The sight was scary. I saw blood almost everywhere, but really, everywhere. And next to the huge pool of blood lay my mother, and looking at her I wasn't even sure she was breathing, I thought she was dead.Luckily, the ambulances arrived quickly, stabilized her condition, and told me that the couple would have to keep her in the hospital for at least a month due to more serious fractures and bruises, but I was happy about that too because I would have been unable to lose my mother forever.

In the end, I only won the race three days later, and I put the trophy straight into my recovering mom's lap and all I told her was, Come on, I won this for you.

After many, many fights, wheel-to-wheel battles, I managed to win the championship title by defeating my rival, Oliver Rowland, which we celebrated with a huge family dinner.

Since there was no free seat at Torro Rosso at the time, I competed in the Japanese Super Formula Series for a year, where I finished second for only half a point.

I was almost barely home during this period, and since my family had a lot of other things to do than accompany me to the races, we met quite rarely, which was very worn at the time.

Then everything happened so suddenly. The same old man who asked me to be one of the Red Bull juniors (and who isn't called Helmut Marko by the way) called me on a nice September day and told me without any hesitation that they needed a pilot for the rest of the season and they thought me.

As it turned out, Danyiil Kvja was so underperforming that he was simply unloaded from Torro Rosso, and I was just amazed as I couldn't imagine how he could underperform so much that it would lead to his kicking. Well, after a year and a half, I was no longer surprised.

Of course, I happily said yes to good old Helmut, and then I called my family with teary eyes, foreshadowing the news. I, Pierre Gasly, did it after so much fighting, I got into the super category.

On the twenty-ninth of September, I was already sitting in the car on the certain Malaysian track where my whole career started and I will always think back with a smile, even though I was only able to get the fourteenth place, but for that position I did fight my only compatriot from the guard, Romain.

I couldn't score a point at all in the 2017 season, however, I also got the meeting for next year, where the situation was a bit brighter.

At the time, I was able to call the Bahrain Grand Prix the best race of my life, where I finished fourth, and with that, I also won my first serious place. For the rest of the season, I had three more points, all of which we happily celebrated with my Italian team.

In the summer of 2018, I learned that Daniel wasn't going to extend with Red Bull, so to my great pleasure, I was certified for 2019, and I think that was the first (but not the last) time I was in the media spotlight.

Congratulations, there are many many questions about what I expect from next season, that I was expecting this decision, that I will be able to beat Max.

I'll do my best - I replied because my goal, of course, was to beat the Dutch youthful talent, because perhaps what matters most is how much you can stand up to your teammate with the same resources.

But I failed. I just wasn't able to overtake, race like a real lion like I did before, plus the car was very hard to drive. As a result, Helmut kicked out of the team as easily as he did half a year ago.

Perhaps the worst day of my life was that certain Belgian media day where a crowd of journalists surrounded me, pushing their microphones into my face and asking questions. I had no idea what, I was unable to grasp any of them normally, I just looked at myself with a glassy look, knowing I had spoiled it.