Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2019

Gasly: Hulkenberg rumours are “bulls***” and “bad journalism”

2019 Canadian Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly dismissed claims he could lose his Red Bull seat for the 2020 F1 season as “bullshit” and “bad journalism”.

Reports in other publications following the Monaco Grand Prix tipped Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg as a potential replacement for Gasly, who is in his season full season of Formula 1.

Gasly said he is in constant contact with Red Bull motorsport director Helmut Marko and isn’t concerned about the rumours. “We call each other every week, after each race we are on the phone together,” said Gasly. “He called me before to sort everything out and honestly I don’t want to waste too much time on this kind of bullshit.

“I have more important things to take care of like my job, my family, my friends. For me bullshit like this is just bad journalism. I don’t want to comment any more about this.”

Following a difficult start to the season, Gasly has moved closer to team mate Max Verstappen. But he believes there is still more to come.

“I think it’s improving otherwise I would not do the performance we’ve done in Monaco. We finished within 10 seconds of the leader starting eighth, so I think it’s improving for sure.

“I still feel I am far from getting the full potential of myself at the moment because there are still things I’m not feeling fully comfortable with but from race to race I can see and I can feel things are getting better.

“There are many areas we can improve in the way I work with my new engineers, the fact that we get to know a bit better every weekend the directions we are trying, testing with the car. And also the feelings in the car. I think it’s all going in the right direction but it’s fair to say I think I have a lot more potential to come out once I feel really comfortable with the package.”

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2019 F1 season

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31 comments on “Gasly: Hulkenberg rumours are “bulls***” and “bad journalism””

  1. I don’t think anyone really took it seriously. At best, I thought it would be Marko leaking it on purpose to give Gasly a bit of a kick up the a**

  2. The day Red Bull/Toro Rosso hires an established driver from outside will come exactly one day after the last journalist has learned that they don’t do that.

  3. ‘who is in his season full season of Formula 1.’

    The number of spelling and grammar issues I see on this site is appalling. Spend Supporter money on a copy editor.

    1. I’d rather them keep the site as lean as they can and focus on the features they already have. I can live with spelling errors especially for the price of being a supporter compared to other publications.

  4. Hulkenberg replacing him is ridiculous, but talking to Marko, OF ALL PEOPLE, every day is veeery far from a clear guarantee.

    He’s lucky Albon is just starting and Kvyat is returning yet. If Toro Rosso had another Gasly in their team, that is a similar driver that won GP2 and did reasonably well, they’d be looking at a swap already. Gasly’s season so far has been very disappointing.

  5. If red bull would even think about hiring non academy drivers Vandoorne would have had his seat.

  6. Obviously he is to young to know RedBull history. Drivers got dropped left and right during their climb to present times. Now some of those drivers are world champions in other categories.

    Being excellent is no guarantee of a RedBull seat, being bellow expectations is imminent danger.

    1. Too young?! Gasly is older than Verstappen…

      1. That is really scary to know Max is still one of the youngest on the grid.

      2. Jaime Alguersuari would probably like to remind you that his F1 career was over when he was 21.

  7. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    6th June 2019, 22:16

    Touchy subject? I’d love it if the Hulkenberg rumours are true – he’s a decent driver, certaily deserving of a shot with a team closer to the front. Although Red Bull don’t seem to hire outside their group I could see them doing it just to spite Renault and Ricciardo.

    Regardless, the truth is Gasly’s performances so far have been enormously underwhelming compared to where Verstappen’s been able to put the car. If Gasly was a little closer to Verstappen, or obviously if Ricciardo was still in it they may have been even further ahead of Ferrari than they are already. Gasly needs to start closing that gap or even better finishing ahead of Verstappen on merit or he’ll be worried about Red Bull fancying a bet on Kvyat or Albon.

  8. If there were more races, the ‘bad journos’ would be busy covering the race and not trying to be busy with rumors

  9. I think Hulk secretly hoped the rumours were true.

    1. Maybe he started them))

    2. He was seen talking to certain Red Bull persona at Monaco. (ofcourse this means nothing)

  10. Usually there are no guarantees regarding driver movements (or the lack of such) in RBR teams… if rumors persist for more than several weeks… usually they have some solid ground.

    With RBR having no drivers to replace those, who fell out of favor, and Ticktum’s prospects looking unimpressive at the moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if they grab Hulkenberg.

    Let’s see hoe the season goes…

  11. I agree with Gasly.

    Now if it had been a story about Albon replacing him, it’d be more believable but frankly, I think Gasly’s doing OK. Stepping into a top car is not quite a straightforward as some think and he’s starting to settle in now.

    1. Agreed. And…his teammate is exceptional and far more engrained on the team.

    2. if u think that it is his first season at a top team, why is charles leclerc doing so well at ferrari now(charlse joined f1 in 2018 while gasly joined midseason in 2017 replacing the torpedo)

      my opinion is that Gasly is saying this to save his ass…

  12. I think Helmut Marko is trolling Pierre!

  13. That combative attitude reminds me of Boullier shortly before the rumors turned out to be true.

  14. Hakk the Rack
    7th June 2019, 7:12

    “10 seconds of the leader starting eighth”… Is he aware what’s happened to Hamilton?

    1. Nothing apart from driving as slow as possible?

  15. Hulkenberg would actually be a great 2nd driver for RedBull. He can push Verstappen more than Gasly can, without it becoming an awkward battle for #1 status in the team like with Dani Ric.

    Hulk is both quicker and more consistant than Piere. That alone would give RB more constructors points, better data to develop the car from and keep Verstappen (a bit more) on his toes. Hulk and Max are very friendly with each other off the track as well (they speak and joke with each other in Dutch all the time).

  16. Where (and when) did these rumours start? I hadn’t heard this until now…perhaps that’s because I only read work by creditable journalists.

    1. With this site and its contributors being classed as creditable…obviously.

  17. Methinks the Gasly doth protest too much

  18. I immediately was skeptical towards this rumor (and that of Vettel quitting at the end of this season.) I never really bought into these in the first place, and now all the three parties involved have since dismissed that, so the end of the story concerning this matter.

  19. Yes dear, of course, no truth to the rumours /sarcasm

    Moving away from the drivers named, he hasn’t done well enough for Red Bull (I’m lenient myself) and they have been ruthless in the past so wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again.

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