Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, Hungaroring, 2019

Gasly mystified by lost pace as Verstappen laps him again

2019 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly said he needs to understand his loss of pace after Friday in Hungary.

The Red Bull driver finished over a lap behind team mate Max Verstappen, who led much of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Gasly said he had a “difficult” weekend after a “strong Friday” at the Hungaroring. “Things started pretty well during the weekend. Then from FP3 onwards I lost a lot of pace and struggled a lot more with grip in general.

“Qualifying was difficult. It was the case it wasn’t maximised but we clearly didn’t have the similar pace to fight at the top. And today was again the same. Need to understand exactly why we lost so much pace and struggled that much and come back stronger in Spa.”

The race got off to a difficult start for Gasly, who began the race on medium tyres. He lost three places as drivers on softer tyres got ahead of him.

“I had a bit of wheelspin and then after with the medium tyres I was a bit sandwiched in turn one,” he explained. “I was quite close with Kimi [Raikkonen] in turn two. So I lost quite a lot at the start which didn’t help in the race.

“But even after that we didn’t really have the pace to do anything. I think that’s the main thing to analyse. We scored a couple of points but for sure not the points we wanted. We’ll sit down with the guys and work together to find out what’s happened.”

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65 comments on “Gasly mystified by lost pace as Verstappen laps him again”

  1. Mystified, LOL.

    1. Him and Bottas .

      1. Bottas today was unlucky with that front wing damage, else it looked like he had decent pace for 3rd or 4th place finish.

        1. Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
          4th August 2019, 18:06

          yea it should be noticed that Bottas barely finished 5 seconds behind Gasly when red Bull was as strong this race. I say this because Bottas got damage that wasn’t his fault and climbed from being last, over 15 seconds behind Kubica and finished this close to Gasly who didn’t have any bad luck at all. Bottas may not be up there with Hamilton, but he is far closer to him than Gasly is to verstappen.

        2. John Richards (@legardforpresident)
          5th August 2019, 4:23

          This is really minor, but knowing how the commentators love to make mountains out of molehills, I found it interesting of how little FOM/the FIA replayed the LeClerc “chop” on Bottas. I figured in this “new digital age” of F1, they’d play it out more for a bit of tension

        3. Hmm, I like Bottas, but I believe Webber’s motto: “you make your own luck”. Somehow Bottas lost three places in the first lap and the reason he got damage was that he was fighting for fourth when he should have been defending second or pushing for the lead. That didn’t look well for his hopes to stay at Mercedes.

  2. I’d check the seat or something connected to it .

    1. “Mystifying” as in:
      “WHOA! How I can drive THAT bad and still keep my seat!?”

  3. Well, I do not quite understand why his engineers can’t help him get closer than half a second at least, they are a topteam, right? After that, sure, experience, and being Max Verstappen, but some of what’s in the car should be possible.

    But in the end, right now I would say ‘lack of confidence all around’, and that’s also something that’s for the team to help him with, especially in his first year with them.

  4. Hey Gasly, look it’s you whose the problem.. Bye

  5. The problem is between his ears.

  6. I hope Ricciardo has a clause in his contract that says he can go to race winning team. Money be damned. He’d kill it in a RedBull right now. We saw him in a great fight with KMag for freaking 15th place…..

    Riccardo in a Renault is as much of a waste of talent as Ghastly is a waste of a great car.

    1. @jeffreyj Red Bull should take him back if Ricciardo wanted a return, he’s still the ideal other driver for them. But I’m not sure he can go back without losing massive amounts of money.

      1. He’s on a 2 year contract at Renault and in the middle of a complex court battle already with this deal and his ex-agent. Not a chance he’s going anywhere until 2021, and Hulk is starting to show him the odd gearbox lately too.

    2. Ricciardo burned some bridges…. made a last call to swap to Renault while his contract at RBR was already on the table.

    3. I hope Ricciardo has a clause in his contract that says he can go to race winning team.

      @jeffreyj – he stated at the start of this season that he didn’t expect to be fighting for wins/podiums this year, so it’s unlikely he’d have such an exit clause for 2019.

    4. @jeffreyj On the money, imagine Ricciardo in Gasly’s Red Bull, would have been tight for pole and probably edged Hamilton to P4….. Red Bull would be ahead of Ferrari in the constructors championship.

  7. I feel bad for Gasly being thrown in at the deep end but at the same time I am like –
    “”Get the F out of that seat and let someone else have a try”

    1. But who? There are just not a lot of drivers available that would want to get the seat:
      – Alonso is probably still fast enough, but the performance of any team he joined went south from that moment in the past 10 years or so, so why would any team get him?
      – Kvayt (and Albon) are probably not that much quicker
      – Ocon and Russel are stuck in their Merc/Wolf contract.
      – Hulk fumbles whenever there are podiums on the table
      Can you think of someone else?

      1. The closest Ferrari got to the title in the last 10 years was actually with Alonso… Honda allowing him back is the issue.

        1. Nonsense, Alonso chucked away two titles when they built the fastest car. The reality is he’s great at self publicity but was never a top driver. And he is an absolutely vile human being, so he literally couldn’t buy a seat in F1 by the end.

          1. Hardly the consensus. If you want a good reference point, you have Kimi as a team mate to compare car performance, Alonso massively outperformed Kimi (to a greater extent than Vettel did).

          2. Dude, Alonso never had the best car with Ferrari. Always behind Red Bull and McLaren. You should read more.

          3. Alvaro: That has been the consensus around F1 for a long time. He still has his fanboys in the media, but he’s barely beaten rubbish teammates for years, despite having a contract that said his car must be faster than theirs.

            Smee: Fernando, is that you? His one real talent is persuading people fast cars are slow. There is not a shadow of a doubt by now that he had a title winning car for two seasons at Ferrari and threw it away, because all the performance data is out there.

            Really, the only people insisting otherwise are those who support him because he’s a far right racist. They’re the only ones insistent that ‘the monkey’, as Poison Nando calls Hamilton, didn’t thrash their hero on merit, but only because he had a faster car.

      2. @mosquito Alonso taking over at Red Bull mid-season would be box office entertainment. But would he actually want to risk squaring up to Verstappen? Would Honda want him there? And would Red Bull want the media distraction (from MV) and the potential flare ups souring their long-term relation with Max? Especially as Ferrari and Mercedes would happily hire him. I’d like to see it happen though.

        1. I think Honda is the road block for Alonso at RB, but at this rate I doubt Honda can put up much longer with all the points Gasly is dropping. The publicity and excitement to have Max and Alonso on the same team might be irresistible.

  8. He’s so far behind his team-mate it’s like there’s three Red Bull teams out there now. I really do feel for him as I think his woes are a mixture of inexperience, confidence and being unable to cope with the thrashing he’s recieving but you could argue he’s costing Red Bull 2nd in the championship and doesn’t seem to be improving at all. Perhaps this is Gasly’s maximum level? He’s got to hope to come back after the break a different driver.

  9. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
    4th August 2019, 17:06

    The thing is though……. who would want to be Verstappen’s team mate right now. I call that seat ‘The Career Ender.’

    1. @rdotquestionmark It has to be someone who’d be delighted to get the occasional podium and perhaps a rare victory but at the same time have no problem playing second fiddle to the team’s main focus. Preferably someone who gets along, on a personal level, with VER.

      I said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s the ideal role for Nico Hulkenberg at this stage of his career.

      1. Norris. But no chance that McLaren will let him go.

        1. Norris and Verstappen are friends, but would Norris want to settle for being a clear #2 driver at this stage of his career? Being friendly with VER helps, but the main thing is willing to be second fiddle without complaining.

          Hulk would want to do so at this point of his career as I said and he’s friendly with VER as well. I often see them chatting and laughing together (in Dutch, mind you, as the Hulk grew up just over the border with the Netherlands and is fluent in Dutch. He also does his interviews with in Dutch)

      2. Lando Norris would be nice. The two are good mates and take a similar approach to racing —both spend hours racing online. More importantly, it seems he can make a car work for him… Guess though he’s too locked in at McLaren. Pity. Russell then perhaps?

      3. Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
        4th August 2019, 18:43

        Yes @jeffreyj that’s a fair shout. Hulk could play the role Kimi did for Seb effectively.

    2. Right in the feels.

    3. Red Bull needs a number 2, the problem is Gasly is reserve driver material.

  10. Final straw…

  11. RBR have 3 weeks to make the right call, If they are serious about taking second constructor’s place off Ferrari. GAS seems not confortable at the “front planted” RBR style as he was at the more “neutral” STR. So they could either do a reversed KVY x GAS (reverse for KVY…), since the torpedo was very confortable at It. But the real masterplan would be bringing ALO in for the remaining of the season Just to collect constructor points. Of course no one wants him there. Too bad no other WDC Winner is up for grabs. RAI would suit them well too. NOT gonna happen, I know, I know… Please save the harsh comments ;)

    1. ALO back in F1 with RBR would be just as sensational is it is unlikely unfortunately. I would be amazing for the sport and RBR but I don’t see Honda allowing it.

    2. Agree. Alonso would be the best candidate but he wouldn’t come to play second fiddle. Perez would fit in nicely I believe.
      I would wager Marko silently wishes he could grab Alonso but…..

  12. Red Bull is clearly a rocketship at the moment aswell. Gasly is woeful amazing how he actually nearly outqualifed Max in Silverstone and Hockenheim.

    1. 3 and 4 tenth behind is not nearly outqualified…..

  13. “Loss of pace” or “loss of face”? Think there’s a typo there… ;)

  14. Gasly isn’t helping Max at all. Max was on an island today as he has been most of the year.
    I don’t think Albon or Kyvat would do much better.
    They need RIC back. Perez would be good but the best would be ALO although it will never happen.
    Marko better realize soon he needs a bonafide rear gunner or Max won’t win a WDC anytime soon.

  15. This is one story that isn’t going too well.
    For a Mclaren to finish ahead of him without any major issue, speaks volumes of his foray at Redbull.
    I don’t know how long the team will give him to find his confidence back, but for some reason just too many steps behind.

  16. So he can match Verstappens pace in practice where Max is setting up the car but not when they are actually racing?

    Maybe someone needs to give him an F1 for dummies book…

  17. He should forget about Verstappen and start to pay attention to Carlos Sainz Jnr right at his heels.

    It will look so bad to finish the season behind a guy with a F 1,5 car.

  18. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    4th August 2019, 17:56

    But can Gasly seriously be that bad that he’s being lapped by the other car and loses to the McLaren? Last week he was overtaken by the Toro Rossos…

    He looked pretty solid last year in the Toro Rosso – does that mean that Albon and Kvyat are a second slower than Max?

    1. I don’t think he looked solid last year. He looked good compared to Hartley, who was completely out of his element, and even so was faster than Gasly for more times than their points finishes suggest.

      1. Hartley was completely out of his element in F1 indeed.

        Combined with Gastly’s performance at the main team now, having to bring Kvyat back to even have enough F1 level drivers to fill Toro Rosso and firing the only RedBull junior with enough Super Licence points for being completely worthless in Super Formula…. one could say Helmut Marko is making a real mess of the RedBull junior program…

  19. I agree with most that Gasly has to go. Being lapped once is unacceptable but this is the second time its happened and that should not be tolerated. Kyvat may merit a second look, but if Honda will allow Alonso in the car, I think he’d be the best interim solution. Then I’d go after Russel even though he’s not in the young driver program. He’s been driving a shopping cart with a wobbly wheel and hasn’t put a wheel wrong. I think he’s the real deal and should be scooped up fast.

  20. As has been stated the best bet for RBR would be a friendly call to a Mr Ricciardo. I think them being reunited for 2020 would be the best thing for both of them. There would need to be some swallowing of pride and a way for Daniel to get out of his 2 year contract. I admit it’s highly unlikely.

    Even Daniel must be disappointed with Renault’s performance this year. They are behind McLaren and Torro Rosso in the championship and McLaren have the same engine!

    Failing this, if I were in RBRs position, I would try to get Nico Hulkenberg for 2020 who is likely to be released by Renault I think.

  21. Vettel will replace Gasly in 2020.

    1. He shouldn’t want to. RedBull will be fully formed around and aimed at VER. That’s a recipe for career and legacy suicide even if he’d be quicker.

  22. RedBull should bring back Vergne, I’m sure he’s still sore about the whole deal with STR and wants to give it another go in F1. He’s proved FE is a bit too small for him, and even though I don’t think he’s up to Max’s level, he’d be very good to pick up the pieces from time to time.

    1. Vergne is a good driver but I think he’s too long out of F1. FE are totally different cars.

      1. @jamesbond are they really cars? Or are they just electrically powered Super Mario dinky toys, racing around improvised mini tracks at parking lots for a boys birthday activity?

  23. John Richards (@legardforpresident)
    5th August 2019, 4:37

    Oh Pierre. We’re all now starting to think that last year, Gasly just looked good because of how ‘inferior’ his teammate drove. Hartley’s mediocre driving (sorry Brendon) really gave RBR a false idea of how Gasly would fare in the big team and it’s backfiring now. The issue RBR have now is that they burned so many bridges with their past drivers from the line up that they can’t show Gasly the door (karma!) What options do they have?

    1. Keep Gasly- wait until he gets better (or not) and then in 2021 show him the door for a free agent?
    2. Purchase RIC from Renault for 2020 (unlikely)
    3. Get VET back in 2020 (if) VER goes to Mercedes
    4. Get Alonso (Honda would veto) but stranger things have happened

  24. Driving in circles
    5th August 2019, 11:14

    Gasly if he had been quicker than Lewis could not have made the extras Stop and max would have won the race; they should replace him with bottas if he doesn’t keep his seat at Mercedes

  25. Danny Ricc languishing in the midfield in a s hite car and this guy languishing in the midfield in a top car. Why oh why oh why did you make that switch D.R.

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