Eddie Jordan admits he’s been so impressed by 27-year-old driver who’s a ‘real talent’

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Eddie Jordan has admitted that he’s been really impressed with Alpine driver Pierre Gasly.

The Frenchman managed to outscore new teammate Esteban Ocon during his first season with his new team and secured a podium finish in Spa and Zandvoort.

Speaking on the Formula For Success Podcast, Eddie Jordan was speaking about Alpine’s fortunes in 2023.

After finishing the 2022 season in fourth, Ocon and Pierre Gasly would have been hoping to kick on and challenge the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes.

Unfortunately, they went backwards, with McLaren and Aston Martin making big strides forward while the French team were left behind.

They scored consistent points throughout the year but failed to regularly challenge the top eight.

Both drivers are fighting for their future in the sport, as their contracts run out at the end of 2024.

Eddie Jordan has admitted that he thinks Gasly is a real talent and looks like an astute signing for Alpine.

Replacing Fernando Alonso was always going to be a tall order and his switch to Aston Martin looks like a fantastic decision right now.

It’s up to Alpine to make sure they head into 2024 in the strongest position possible, but early indications suggest that might not be looking so likely.

Jordan hails Alpine star Gasly

Speaking about 2023’s sixth-best manufacturer, Jordan said: “I really don’t know what the makeup was, I thought they were coming to a stage where they were actually going to impart good, continual success and then they changed the total management.

“I was very disappointed at that, but that’s what they did and they’ve had flashes of brilliance and I think [Pierre] Gasly is a real talent, I really do.

“I think he’s a very good driver.”

After years in the Red Bull set-up, Gasly made the right call to switch to Alpine and attempt to be the lead driver in a works team rather than carry on at AlphaTauri.

They’ve got plenty of work to do to start looking further up the grid rather than over their shoulder next year.

Eddie Jordan’s praise of Gasly would be shared by many Alpine fans, but he needs the right car in order to challenge properly going forward.

Otherwise, he might be looking elsewhere for 2025 rather than the team looking to replace him.