Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly buys shares in FC Versailles

French Formula 1 driver Pierre Gasly has purchased shares in FC Versailles, reports L’Équipe.

The 28-year-old, who drives for Alpine F1 Team, is known to be a passionate football enthusiast and has purchased shares alongside owner and president Alexandre Mulliez, heir to the Auchan supermarket empire, and Mulliez’s business associate Fabian Lazare, both of whom took over the Yvelines club for a sum of 1.5M€ last June. 

With experience of high level sporting performance and a passion to succeed, Gasly is driven to help the club, which currently plays in the Championnat National, the third tier of French football, build for the future and deliver success on and off the field: 

“I’m passionate about football. I follow all the results and I played myself when I was young. In Normandy we have FC Rouen, Quevilly-Rouen Métropole, Le Havre, Caen… I played for Bois-Guillaume. At that time, I had trials for Auxerre as a child during Guy Roux’s tenure. I’ve always been in the world of football.

I’ve wanted to engage in an ambitious project for a while. I kept myself informed of what’s going on in this domain and that’s how I met the Mulliez family. Alexandre had just bought FC Versailles 78 and presented his project to me. We sat at the table and talked about he wanted to develop the club. We have both mid term and long term ambitions, over five years as well as fifteen years. It’s a passion, my second passion after racing.

I will try to transmit my experience in high level sport, the demands, mentality, teamwork, individual performance, stress management, the capacity to outdo oneself every day.”

Unlike other celebrities who invest in sport purely for selfish reasons, the Frenchman sees himself as part of a bigger picture:

“It’s not