Gasly embarks on new sports venture against world superstars

Pierre Gasly has found a new way to keep busy during the F1 winter break, purchasing his own padel team to go up against the likes of Lionel Messi, Andy Murray and Rafa Nadal.

The Frenchman, who will continue with Alpine next season and beyond, will enter his team in a fledgling tournament, called the Hexagon Cup, in Madrid early next year.

Padel is a fast-growing racquet sport which is popular amongst F1 drivers, as well as athletes from other forms of sport. 

Looking forward to his new venture, Gasly welcomed people to come and watch the event when discussing it in the FIA press conference ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

"Yeah, very exciting news," the 28-year-old told media including RacingNews365. "[I] Just became a padel team owner, entering the eighth team in the Hexagon Cup - it's a new competition that started last year in Madrid.

"There are big names in there, Leo Messi, Andy Murray, Rafa Nadal, they’ve all got their own team and many others. It's going to be exciting to have my own team competing against these guys.

"It's going to be end of January next year. So for whoever is available on that weekend, they're more than welcome to come and watch the event."

Like Messi and the two recently-retired tennis stars, Gasly will not be directly competing.

There will, however, be young players and amateurs trying their hand, with a mix of skill levels involved in the competition.

"I'm not going to play myself," the one-time grand prix winner explained. "These guys are professional and it's quite a fun format where you've got professional players with also like amateurs and youngsters.

"So you get eight players in total and it's quite a fun tournament. But yeah, I'll try to be there to support my team."

When it was put to Gasly that Nico Hulkenberg, who was alongside him in the media session, is handy with a racquet, the Alpine driver joked: "I haven't seen him yet, but why not? Try to get his focus away from F1 a bit."