Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed Pierre Gasly made a string of similar mistakes at turn one during the German Grand Prix.
Horner described Gasly’s weekend as “a bit up and down”. He crashed in practice but “had a strong qualifying”. Like team mate Max Verstappen his start was poor due to a problem with his engine mapping.Then he had “a difficult first pit stop” said Horner. “There was a problem with the right-rear wheel nut. And then they had to hold him because the whole queue of cars came in.”
However Gasly made life difficult for himself with a series of similar mistakes after switching to slick tyres.
“He recovered well and he was recovering, recovering, recovering,” said Horner. “And then on the last restart he passed Vettel but then went wide on three consecutive laps at turn one and that’s where the other cars got past him.”
Gasly’s errors were not quite consecutive: They occured on laps 49, 50 and 52. He then failed to see the chequered flag after colliding with Alexander Albon’s Toro Rosso.
“They tripped over each other which was frustrating because it was a good opportunity today to take a lot of points out of Ferrari,” said Horner. “So instead of taking 20-odd points out of them we’ve only taken seven or eight.”
Horner said the team needs Gasly to raise his game if they are to stand a chance of beating Ferrari to second place in the constructors’ championship. “I think if we can start double-scoring, that’s our target the second half of the year, to really close that close that gap down.”
Red Bull trail Ferrari by 217 points to 261. Gasly has scored 55 points in his first season for the team so far.
How is the ‘silly season’ shaping up? Read @DieterRencken’s take on the 2020 F1 driver market in his new RacingLines column today on RaceFans
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Phylyp (@phylyp)
31st July 2019, 7:37
While this might appear a warning to Gasly (and it is), he can also take heart in the way Horner phrased the “double scoring” part – that reads like an open invitation to Gasly that he can still be a part of it.
PS: Now that’s a nice teaser for Dieter’s column!
Lee H (@stopitrawr)
31st July 2019, 8:01
For now @phylyp
God Gasly is rubbish. Makes Kvyat look amazing, and frankly he’s a far better driver than he was back when he was dropped and deserves this seat far more than Pierre “I can’t drive in the wet” Gasly.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
31st July 2019, 8:05
@stopitrawr – quite true. If anything, Horner’s message and tone is unusually generous for RBR. It probably goes to show that it was the pressure to promote Max than anything that Kvyat did wrong that led to the latter’s demotion.
mark
31st July 2019, 8:10
Yes being lucky to pit at the right time means being good, not all being awful in practice and quali. that’s just not relevant at all.
Biskit Boy (@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk)
31st July 2019, 8:12
Ghastly can’t beat Max for speed so he has to maximise every other metric in the same way Rosberg did to beat Hamiltion.
Spinning off once less times than Max is one such metric.
Anyway we’ve had three epic races in a row so surely the Hungaboring can serve up another, can it?
Jere (@jerejj)
31st July 2019, 12:31
@sean-p-newmanlive-co-uk In 2014, and ’15, as well as, to a little smaller extent in ’06, and ’11 it did, so a possibility.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
31st July 2019, 18:41
Was it ’14 or ’15 that it was wet? Didn’t Ricciardo win that one in spectacular fashion?
Jere (@jerejj)
14th August 2019, 7:49
@jeffreyj The 2014 race, yes.
MaddMe (@)
31st July 2019, 8:41
I’d like to see Kvyat given a 2nd chance at RBR and really should be swapped now rather than later. Kvyat has come back as a mature driver with seemingly better awareness and less reckless than his previous stint and I feel would benefit the team and Verstappen…
MaddMe (@)
31st July 2019, 8:43
Indications are up to now, that they plan on leaving the teams as the are for the season, with no driver switching…
Phylyp (@phylyp)
31st July 2019, 9:02
@maddme – I would respect them for keeping the pairing untouched, even if it costs them the #2 WCC spot. If anything, it would also be a sign of respect to Tost that they don’t steal his driver abruptly.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
31st July 2019, 8:50
55/217 points. That is the real issue.
141/261 Vettel might make many mistakes for example, but in championship standings he is not trailing teammate by 195%.
At this point in the season RedBull could do very well with 40-50 points from Gasly, this would be in my eyes very acceptable performance. Not quite Verstappen level, but not greatly behind.
Mick Harrold (@mickharrold)
31st July 2019, 9:40
I know Horner is trying to send a message to Gasly and on the surface, it seems like a message that needs to be delivered. However, I wonder when Horner will get the message that really needs to be delivered. The Red Bull/Torro Rosso environment is toxic and it destroys drivers. And it is really hurting RB.
RB should have the best driver pairing on the grid this year. That pairing could be Verstappen/Ricciardo or it could also be Verstappen/Sainz. With either one of those pairings, RB would likely have more team points than Ferrari but instead they are a distant 3rd and it is their fault. Not Gasly’s
Gasly isn’t great, but he is way better than his current showing would suggest. RB promoted him too early and then didn’t even try and support him. And now he is mentally messed up and probably can’t recover.
The reason Gasly got promoted too soon was because both Ricciardo and Sainz refuse to drive for them.
When you are a top team, you can demand that your drivers are top class and you can treat them arrogantly.
However, when you are a second class team (i.e. you can’t deliver a WDC), you can’t be arrogant and treat your drivers poorly or you will lose them. And the other drivers that are yet to prove themselves. Well you will destroy them and you can’t afford to do that when you are a second rate team. You need them.
Left the RB system : Sainz Ricciardo (and Vettel, but for a Ferrari drive)
Kvyat : Great TR career. Mentally destroyed at RB and sent to the scrap heap. Invited back because RB were desperate.
Jean-Éric Vergne : Cast aside by RB for being crap. Went on to win Formula E and prove he isn’t crap.
Jaime Alguersuari : Career destroyed before he turned 21. The point at which he probably should have been starting his career. Who know what he could have done if he had been nurtured.
Sébastien Buemi : Similarly “Crap” driver who went on to prove he isn’t crap by winning FE.
Brendon Hartley : Former LeMans winner who always looked like a fish out of water in F1. Needed a arm around the shoulder to help him find his feet and see if he could find his speed. Got a knife in the back instead.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
31st July 2019, 10:31
@mickharrold – nice comment, particularly with the post RBR careers of those you’ve listed.
How good is FE an indicator of a driver’s talents? I’m not mocking FE or being snide, I’m asking honestly – is it as good a guideline as F2/F3, or is it easier/harder?
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
31st July 2019, 10:47
As I understand it, Brendon now works for Ferrari as a development driver. Ferrari are ahead of Red Bull in the WCC. Of course, I’m not saying Ferrari’s lead is all due to him working for Ferrari and not Red Bull, but I do think Hartley wasn’t given fair treatment at Toro Rosso.
Anyway, I hope the pay at Ferrari is better than at Toro Rosso.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
31st July 2019, 12:38
@mickharrold
Jean-Éric Vergne : Cast aside by RB for being crap. Went on to win Formula E and prove he isn’t crap.
Sébastien Buemi : Similarly “Crap” driver who went on to prove he isn’t crap by winning FE.
I don’t believe that anyone at RB ever claimed these two were crap. They got 3 full years to prove themselves and were replaced by drivers they thought were great talents (Buemi by Vergne/Ricciardo, and Vergne by Verstappen/Sainz). Now I do think that Vergne and Buemi were good drivers worthy of their seats, their replacements were arguably even bigger talents, so I can understand RB’s decision at the time. And no other team ever offered Buemi or Vergne a race seat.
James Bond (@jamesbond)
31st July 2019, 15:06
Spot on1
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
31st July 2019, 18:44
@mickharrold Formula E is basically Mario Karts for adults…. You really can’t take a championship of that series seriously.
CarWars (@maxv)
1st August 2019, 6:50
Correct, you are not allowed to use Formula E here as a comparison of good racing. Where other series are feeder series, formula E is the reject bin.
Hans Duiven
31st July 2019, 9:49
JEV would be a good one!
Neil (@neilosjames)
31st July 2019, 23:35
Feel a bit sorry for Gasly.
He isn’t, and has never looked like, a top-level talent. Verstappen obviously is. Red Bull put a mediocre, inexperienced driver who wasn’t ready for the big time – and who was moving to a new team – up against a more experienced, elite-level driver who was already established within said team.
Can’t see how he could have ever come out of 2019 looking good.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
3rd August 2019, 0:11
He could’ve done a bottas 2017, he didn’t though, no excuse.