Damon Hill reserves special praise for ‘best’ Alpine star Pierre Gasly after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly has ended the 2024 Formula 1 season in the best possible way.

At the beginning of the season at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were rooted to the back of the grid after a worrying qualifying session.

Alpine’s car was overweight and concerns over their Renault power unit meant the French team were suddenly facing being the slowest outfit in the paddock.

Gasly and Ocon finished 17th and 18th at the opening race, only finishing ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant.

It took six races for Alpine to record their first point, with Ocon sneaking into the top 10 at the Miami Grand Prix, before Gasly opened his account for the year in Monaco.

That’s despite Ocon crashing into Gasly in Monaco which was the final nail in the coffin for their long-term future as teammates.

Ocon has now moved on to join Haas ahead of the 2025 season and is already testing for his new team in Abu Dhabi.

However, Alpine’s recovery during the second half of the season has been very impressive and attracted the attention of F1 world champion Damon Hill.

Damon Hill calls Pierre Gasly ‘Best PER’ after brilliant end to the 2024 season

Hill posted on his Instagram story with the caption ‘Best PER’ alongside a list of the 28-year-old’s achievements this season.

Best PER refers to ‘player efficiency rating’ a term typically associated with basketball when all of the statistics surrounding a player – or in this case a driver – are boiled down to one number as a way of making simple comparisons.

Gasly finished 10th in the Drivers’ Championship, leapfrogging Nico Hulkenberg at the final race of the season with a fantastic seventh-place finish.

He also helped Alpine earn an additional £10m in prize money by finishing sixth in the Constructors’ standings, with the double-podium he and Esteban Ocon achieved in Sao Paulo.

READ MORE: Alpine driver Pierre Gasly’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend

Flavio Briatore was delighted with Alpine’s additional prize money after that momentous result in Brazil in November.

During Gasly’s 2024 season for Alpine, he achieved nine points finishes and a single podium.

His achievements can be underlined by the fact that since the summer break, the Frenchman outscored Sergio Perez by 15 points (36-21).

On top of all of this, Gasly caused £0 of crash damage throughout the season, although it’s hard to know how accurate this is given he was crashed into by old teammate Esteban Ocon during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Alpine are relying on Pierre Gasly to lead Jack Doohan into the 2025 season

The final race of the season in Abu Dhabi saw Alpine deploy a new driver partnership ahead of next year.

Jack Doohan was handed his Formula 1 debut alongside Gasly, with Ocon released so that he could take part in Haas’ post-season test.

Doohan qualified last on Saturday, but had some traffic on his final flying lap and was the least experienced driver on the track.

READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage

Gasly hasn’t been the recognised number-one driver in a team since being paired with Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri.

However, he will be tasked with taking Doohan under his wing next year ahead of the 2026 season when Alpine will hope becoming a Mercedes customer team lifts them up the standings.

Talking about Doohan after his debut, via Speedcafe, Gasly said: “Honestly, I think he’s been doing well.

“Obviously, it’s unfortunate, in the end in Q1, I think he had a bit of a poor out lap with the traffic and stuff which didn’t make it easy for him.”

Doohan’s seat could still be under threat from Franco Colapinto and even though he’s expected to start next year as an Alpine driver, he’s going to know that the Argentine is looming in the pit lane waiting for a seat to become available.

The young Australian will hope he can do enough to avoid being the first 2025 rookie to be moved on.