Current Pierre Gasly

Pierre Gasly - or as I like to think of him - the last Jedi. For the last decade or more there has been an endless line of talented young drivers all coming off the Red Bull assembly line. Sometimes there were so many that even with 4 seats in F1 some talent had to be filtered out and never made the top level. Those heady days have unfortunately come to and end and Pierre Gasly really does represent the last of the dynasty. Red Bull have invested in younger talent and will come round again but for now its all on hold. Why have they let this happen you ask? Well to be honest they have so much young talent already in fruition that they don't need any new ones coming along. Verstappen and Ricciardo are very much here for the long term and they still have Carlos Sainz on the books who is perfectly capable of mixing it with both that pair. So where does Gasly come in? Well he is very much an emergency biscuit. IF Verstappen or Ricciardo jump ship to another team AND Sainz leaves Red Bull to head up Renault AND Gasly proves to have some pace then he will be very much in the main Red Bull seat. Lets not do Pierre down though as he really does have a lot of potential.

Gasly went from Renault Eurocup to WSR 3.5 to GP2/F2 and its fair to say he consistently competed at the front in all of them. His junior career though will be remembered mostly for his 3 year run without a win in any series. That is a stat and a half but quite unfair on Gasly. He was a regular podium finisher and was in the title run during many of these years. This run came to an end spectacularly when he powered his way to the F2 title against very strong competition in Antonio Giovanazzi. There wasn't room for him at Torro Rosso last year so he went out and drove in Super Formula. He might have won the title there too if not for the last race being cancelled. Interestingly the Japanese connection came in handy when Honda suddenly became Torro Rosso's engine supplier as he gained quite a fan base out there. Pierre hasn't always been the smartest though. He was set to come into Torro Rosso during the 2016 season but went to the media mouthing off about it which did not go down with Dark Helmut and was not given the drive. Thats ok, lesson learned right? No. Gasly nearly made the same mistake again in 2017 when he was set to come in which led to some series back tracking on Twitter. He did eventually get the nod though and has done a steady job in the races he was in. A new year, new engine supplier and a full season though should be the real test of him.

If I'm honest I don't rate Gasly that highly. Don't get me wrong he is talented and quick but I think he lacks the mental strength compared to the others round him. He also doesn't have the easy job of going up against Brendon Hartley. Hartley is an F1 rookie and therefore not a good measuring stick but yet unlike usual rookies he comes with a whole truck load of experience in so many different types of cars. Gasly also has the added issue of driving a Torro Rosso which is serving as a Red Bull guinea pig for the Honda engine. Testing looks positive so far but you have to think that a handful of points finishes would be a good season for Pierre.

So a good addition to the grid or a Gasly one? boom boom.
 
Gasly's performance last weekend defied the laws of physics! Seriously, he's done a good job to putting Toro Rosso (and Honda) up there. Hopefully this is a sign that he's destined for greatness and not an outliner
 
Off topic, I know Karun Chandhok only drove an F1 car for 5 minutes and only got the gig because of the F1 race in India (did you know it was in held in India by the way?) But he makes an excellent commentator, informative, amusing and very easy on the ear. Way better than PDR in Sky sports F1 mission control or whatever bollocks they kept calling it.

Anyway, that's just my thoughts.
 
He’s the Indian version of Martin Brundle without the slight Hamilton bias. :D
I was at Nürburgring GP 2011, his last race. I‘m glad he made it into F1 though only into backmarker cars. I didn’t meet him that day, but I did run into, not literally, Marc Gene and Tom Kristensen.
 
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IF Verstappen or Ricciardo jump ship to another team AND Sainz leaves Red Bull to head up Renault AND Gasly proves to have some pace then he will be very much in the main Red Bull seat.

When I wrote the above in the article intro I very much had my tongue in my cheek thinking it would never happen in a million years. Turns out it was exactly what did happen!
 
When I wrote the above in the article intro I very much had my tongue in my cheek thinking it would never happen in a million years. Turns out it was exactly what did happen!

Really? He was the obvious candidate to replace Ricciardo from day 1. It's Red Bull's typical MO, and Gasly is doing well on the Toro Rosso on top of that - better than Kvyat did before being promoted, for example.
 
HansyRod - yes really. Article was written when he came into F1 where he was 4th in line to a Redbull seat where the 3 in front of him appeared to be going nowhere. On top of which Marko really does like him much.

We can all pretend it was obvious now but on March 15th it seemed not too be.
 
So Gasly had a bad race in Australia and I was thinking about Bahrain. Now we all know what Red Bull are like and I was wondering how many races he's got to prove himself there before they decide whether or not he stays or heads back to Toro Rosso. If they did do that to him, and at this point there is no reason why they should, I'm just speculating, would they promote Kvyat again do you think?
 
They'll give him a year at least in my view. I doubt they'll promote Kvyat as Max is their star stallon and it's fair to say Kvyat has something to prove there. I would also suggest they won't promote Albon unless he has a great season. There preferred choice is Daniel Ticktum but he doesn't have a super licence yet
 
So Gasly had a bad race in Australia and I was thinking about Bahrain. Now we all know what Red Bull are like and I was wondering how many races he's got to prove himself there before they decide whether or not he stays or heads back to Toro Rosso. If they did do that to him, and at this point there is no reason why they should, I'm just speculating, would they promote Kvyat again do you think?

in the Kyvat soap opera nothing would surprise me
 
I was just thinking about how they tried to get rid of Brendon Hartley from Toro Rosso after so few races last year. If they'd had a decent replacement he'd have been gone, so they don't give drivers much of a chance. Gasly has had one bad race, I wonder how many more he can afford before his drive is on the line in the same way.

They might give him longer, a whole season even, but I wouldn't put anything past them myself.
 
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