Pierre Gasly, currently driving for the French racing team Alpine, was Max Verstappen‘s teammate at Red Bull in 2019. The driver was given twelve Grand Prix races to prove himself, but according to the Austrians, he fell short. Gasly was replaced by Alexander Albon. The Frenchman believes his results were not solely due to his own abilities: ‘I received no support.’
Pierre Gasly was given the opportunity to prove himself in Formula 1 by Red Bull after Daniel Ricciardo‘s departure at the end of 2018. The Frenchman was allowed to take the seat next to Max Verstappen, but twelve Grand Prix races later, he had to give up his spot to Alexander Albon.
The Frenchman vividly remembers when he heard of Ricciardo’s move to Renault. “Shortly after Budapest, Daniel announced that he would be leaving Red Bull,” Gasly recounts in Off The Grid. “I remember arriving in Greece for my holiday and thinking: ‘Wow, Daniel is leaving.'” However, the driver was not the only one being considered for the second Red Bull seat. “It was between Carlos Sainz and me. The phone rang and Helmut (Marko, ed.) said: ‘Okay, you will be a driver for Red Bull Racing from the beginning of next year’ – this was six months after the start of my first full season in F1.”
No Support
Pierre Gasly consistently scored points during his twelve Grand Prix for Red Bull, but it wasn’t enough for the Austrians. “I won’t lie, it was sad,” the Frenchman reflects on the moment he lost his seat. “In 2019, my second year in Formula 1, I received no support, in a very large team that heavily supported Max Verstappen – for good reasons, as he was achieving results. But I started with a new engineer from Formula E who had no experience in F1. So it was a strange dynamic.”
“I didn’t really have the resources to perform well,” Gasly continues. “I tried to fight in my own way, because I wanted to perform. They weren’t happy, but neither was I, because I saw that I couldn’t show my potential.” For the current Alpine driver, it was almost a ‘relief’ when Albon took over his seat.
