Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, Hungaroring, 2019

“We shouldn’t be racing Saubers and McLarens”: Red Bull desperate for Gasly to raise his game

2019 Hungarian Grand Prix

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the team “desperately” need Pierre Gasly to start performing better.

Gasly was lapped by team mate Max Verstappen again during yesterday’s Hungarian Grand Prix. He took the chequered flag sixth between Carlos Sainz Jnr’s McLaren and Kimi Raikkonen’s Sauber-run Alfa Romeo.

“It’s been been a frustrating weekend for Pierre,” said Horner. “The start wasn’t great, the first lap wasn’t great and we shouldn’t be racing Saubers and McLarens.

“We need him to be racing Ferraris and Mercedes. Everything we can do to try and help them achieve that is what we’ll do.”

Gasly’s absence from the sharp end of the field also reduced the team’s tactical options for protecting Verstappen from Lewis Hamilton in the race, said Horner.

“The problem is he’s not in the mix at all. So it’s not like if Lewis said he was going to come out you know behind him or anything like that. But today both Mercedes and Red Bull had ‘one-legged’ races with the team mates out of contention.”

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Red Bull are 44 points behind second-placed Ferrari in the constructors’ championship. Gasly has scored just 63 of their points to his team mate’s 181.

Carlos Sainz Jnr, McLaren, Hungaroring, 2019
Sainz closed within five points of Gasly
“Obviously not having two cars running at the front does hurt us,” said Horner. “Particularly in the constructors’ championship where we’ve scored the same amount of points as Ferrari today at a track we should have taken more out of them.”

Horner said Gasly needs to “take some time out during the summer break, reflect on the first half of the season and take the lesson from that into the second half of the year.

“It is vital for us, if we’re to stand any chance of catching Ferrari, that we have him finishing further ahead.”

Gasly’s performance in his first year at the team has raised questions over whether he will be retained. Horner said the team is not planning to replace him this season.

“Our intention is to leave in the car to the end of the year,” he said. “But we desperately need to see him realising more of the potential of the car.”

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132 comments on ““We shouldn’t be racing Saubers and McLarens”: Red Bull desperate for Gasly to raise his game”

  1. NeverElectric
    5th August 2019, 7:15

    Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, Pierre…

    1. Pierre G is not happy at RB. I thought he would do a lot better.

      Trouble with RB is they are very much a one driver team, more so even than Ferrari. Looking back on their time in F1, we find there is always a favoured boy and a second driver who is flushed down the toilet and his career suffers a terminal decline.
      Maybe the only exception, maybe, is Webber and DC. Two happy journeymen together….

      1. Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
        5th August 2019, 12:14

        Red Bull gave Ricciardo all the freedom to beat their reigning champion Vettel and in 2016, 2017 and early 2018, they managed to field to somewhat similarily competative cars for Ric and Verstappen.
        This year was the first season since 2013 in which they have had a clear second driver from the onset of the season.

        1. Maybe in Dutch media they gave Ricciardo the same chance. For anyone in the real world nothing has ever been more obvious than Ricciardo being fully abandoned by the team even long before Verstappen could challenge him at all.

      2. @Islander
        “Trouble with RB is they are very much a one driver team, more so even than Ferrari.”
        And how about Mercedes? Just look at how they are throwing Bottas under the bus with his one year contracts extensions.
        The way Mercedes keeps treating their 2nd driver since Rosberg left is equally appaling.

        (a favoured “boy”)….hmm, little bias maybe?

        1. @ Oconomo

          Could it be I overstated my point a little?
          I’m actually a Max fan and fully expect him to be top dog at RB, it’s just that they seem unable to support the second driver.
          Would better mentoring for Gasly raise his level of performance?

          1. @Islander
            Point taken :)

            I don’t see how mentoring Gasly will help; he simply isn’t up to the task. (Bar Hamilton currently no one on the grid is.)
            What RBR should do is replace Gasly with a good driver who’s career is in a downward trajectory (kinda like Webber) and who’d be happy with picking up some podiums, an occasional win and a slim chance of winning a title (Hulk, Perez, Bottas or my personal favourites Daniel or Seb)
            Putting someone there who’s career has yet to start…..killing.

        2. “W-wh-what about bottas?”

          Bottas’s team isn’t stuck doing passive aggressive press releases to urge him to do better… so your “what about ism’s” is an utter waste of bandwidth…

          Someone give this guy a weekly article for him to complain about traffic and his breakfast!

      3. DC was at retirement age F1 by that time, and RB was a small team by that time before achieving results, so comparison is quite pointless

        Webber was a bit better, unlucky he not had a good drive before his final years. Still beaten almost every teammates at
        almost every season except Vettel is his best days. Imo he is much better than a journeyman. Then everyone is
        a journeyman in your terminology who not earned WDC basically. How about then Stirling Moss who finished the championship 4x 2nd and 3x 3rd and having won 24% of his GP’s? Even Hamilton (to Button and to Rosberg) or Alonso
        had seasons loosing to their teammates.

        Altough i never really liked RB for the mentioned policy.
        I liked RB for the sense of humour and marketing in general situations, like the funny contests between Ricciardo and Max before every GP’s but thats management of media and marketing, and show buisness, nothing more. Heavily based on Ricciardo’s funny personality.

        Imo Gasly was a nice try, like Mercedes’s 3rd pit stop at Hungaroring. A bit of a gamble after a promising first season, not having too much proven talents, but having quite a lot of ok drivers at that moment. If he wont reach half of Max’s
        points at the end of the season, his future is very uncertain imo. Ocon, Wehrlein, Albon, Russel are at good age, and
        looking very good at the moment. Probably Wehrlein screwed it a bit at Formula E, but was more unlikely to drop from F1 than Gasly is now. De Vries is quite much dominating F2 at the moment.

        If Kvyat or Albon destroys the midfield this year they can go up, and Gasly can go Kyvatted. Probably has some races
        at Toro before being released next year, because of his stable results at development series. Also Kvyat can go Kvyatted
        if the German podium was the last good result of him, and Albon at least keeps his level, what is likely because he started quite well and flawless yet.

      4. Jose Lopes da Silva
        5th August 2019, 16:19

        What kind of evidence suuport this?

  2. But today both Mercedes and Red Bull had ‘one-legged’ races with the team mates out of contention.

    Better a one-legged RBR/Mercedes than a two-legged Ferrari, going by yesterday’s results.

    1. @phylyp Indeed, LOL.

    2. Savage. To be fair, this was always going to be Ferrari’s worst track. I’m surprised by their solid qualifying pace.

  3. Yes, Max wants strong team mates… hire Fernando Alonso.

    1. GP2 engine GP2 .. that was the last straw for Honda .. Honda will never work with Alonso again .. and because Honda is the engine supplier or RBR hence the reason that Alonso will not get a seat at RBR

      1. That was in 2015. Alonso drove another two years for McLaren-Honda, including a Honda backed Indy gig in 2017. So. That wasn’t the last straw.

        1. And at some point Honda are going to have to admit that they can’t keep pumping $100’s of millions into an F1 engine program and keep dropping WCC points like this. The story of a Max/Alonso dream team is too good to pass up.

          1. RBR wouldn’t touch toxic Alonso even if he came with all the funds in the world. RBR believe in success for the team, not propping up the narcissistic ambitions of one man.

            A poorly performing, but well intentioned Gasly rather than Alonso; who will seek out all reasons to excuse himself at the expense of everyone else.

    2. Alonso is a guarantee for trouble. Over the past 10 years every team he joined started to slump. Maybe it was not due to Alonso, but if I were a Team boss I would not take a chance with him.

    3. @JCost awww…. I remember my first year following F1 when I was still clueless to the nuances of the sport! So innocent!

    4. IF it’s finishing ahead of Ferrari for the WDC chase I think ALO would be RBR’s best bet for the rest of this season and just this season.

      RBR would have him over a barrel. He’s chomping at the bit to get a competitive ride and all RBR would have to do is
      draw up a contract to their liking and tell him to take it or leave it. In the contract they could stipulate the right to fire
      him if he caused the slightest amount of friction within the team. But I think he will be a good boy – he knows this is his last chance.

      The competition with Max could work. I think Max would beat him more often than not and at the same time he could learn from ALO’s vast experience behind the wheel. Newey has always coveted Alonso so he wouldn’t have to be convinced.

      Having said all that, I don’t think there is a snowball’s chance in hell it will happen. And I give RBR about the same odds of beating Ferrari in the WCC race with any of their current drivers.

  4. Yes, he indeed does need to raise his game (again.) In Silverstone, he was on it, but then two weeks later in Hockenheim not too well again although given the circumstances (a botched pit-stop and the weather conditions) a bit easier to look through the fingers, but this time not so much.

  5. Max can go to any team, no team can deny all that he brings, but, it is Gasly who is opening the driver market. There’s a vacancy at RB and everything can shuffle as a result.

    1. If Red Bull had a replacement the swap was already done. Now RB has to wait for a good driver!

      Alonso is good but RB doesn’t want him (probaly Honda vetoed him)

      1. I doubt Red Bull would bother to ask Honda, I don’t see Alonso even being considered at Red Bull.

        1. Marko already said that Honda is the stumbling block for Alonso at RB, but if this keeps up Honda will eventually give in.

    2. I’m not sure that it’s only Gasly who is the cork in the bottle of the 2020 drivers’ market.
      Bottas is also going to have a worrying few weeks over the summer break. After a really good qualifying performance his first lap was a complete nightmare. Although we can’t know exactly what’s in his head that first lap (imho) looked like a driver making uncharacteristic mistakes under pressure.

      1. Bottas is a schumacher compared to gasly, if red bull had a bit of common sense in the driver choices (I know, it’s worked in the past, they got great drivers like verstappen and ricciardo, who’s better than vettel and is not great), rather than continuing with gasly they’d get bottas, you can stay assured he’d get some podiums while verstappen fights for wins, he wouldn’t fight in the midfield!

  6. Yup.
    Give Alonso a run for the 2nd half of the year and they might just beat Ferrari.
    If the fireworks don’t explode in their face, they can try it again for a full year in 2020.

    Won’t happen, but fun thinking about it.

    1. Honda will Veto Alonso’s return to this team.

      1. Honda have said they’re happy to work with Alonso again – it’s McLaren they have the issue with.

        1. That was about Indy, it was pure PR talk. They blocked any team being supplied by Honda engines to accept him. Last Alonso raced with the Chevy engine and if he goes again it’ll also be with it.
          @ksells

      2. Honda will only take Alonso if he is says on the radio every race that they have the best F1 engine :P

        1. “F1 engine! F1 engine!! Buy Kimoa!!!”

    2. I agree, it won’t happen but it would be AWESOME if Alonso go that seat for the rest of the year. Him against Max, Vettel and Hamilton.
      F1 ratings would skyrocket!

  7. Max vs Fernando would be just amazing for F1 simply because of their inevitible personality clash. Would be incredible to watch

  8. This was just terrible. Bottas also on insecure seat was last by the end of opening laps and made it back through. Meanwhile Gasly was just falling behind in a car that was good for pole?

    This is the issue both RedBull and Mercedes have right now. They have two outstanding talents, who have a few tenths over their teammates.

    Ferrari doesn’t have this problem. Their drivers are equally “slow”.

    What can the teams decide then? Mercedes can poach Max and trade out Bottas. That would make Gasly relatively more competitive and Bottas an easy #1 driver.

    So what can they then do? RedBull is now very competitive, they should be pushing to get another really good driver. Certainly they can do better than Gasly. Kvyat is no Max Verstappen, but certainly he is decent and now has some confidence back. His confidence was only destroyed once he was dropped from RedBull, this seems a most straight forward choice by Spa.

    If i was leading RedBull that is what I’d do for next race. Gasly had no trouble in the race and got lapped by teammate. Max is good but no driver is that good to warrant teammate that much slower.

    Bottas situation is way trickier, he is good in quali, he was decent in the race until Charles did a racing incident on his front wing. Very hard to justify replacing him, but Mercedes must. Because Bottas is so good, there are not many options for replacing him.

    Ocon is out of the car for 1 year, 100% that hurt some of his performance, and very few drivers are better than Bottas where they have any kind of weakness.
    George Russel would be my choice. But is he really good in a really bad car? How do you measure a driver that drives a dog of a car with teammate that has question marks surrounding his pace.
    Daniel Riciardo? Is he really any better than Bottas? We know he is a tiny bit behind Max Verstappen.
    Vettel wants to win a title with Ferrari before his retirement, maybe he is afraid of Lewis Hamilton?
    Charles Leclerc then? Who knows what contract he has, likely it does not feature good enough escape clauses to escape to Mercedes.

    Mercedes thus is left with… Fernando Alonso. OH wait one year out of the car and old. Is he really better than Bottas? I would be certain maybe not in quali pace but come race day? I’d bet on Alonso in the race.

    So predictions? Bottas stays, Gasly will be replaced. Kvyat #1 candidate but I would not be shocked if some more established name joins RedBull now that they have a decent Honda engine.

    1. Here’s a statement that no one else’s has thought of but for me the most deserving of the place is Jean Eric Vergne although you will have to say you’ll be equal drivers tbf I don’t really know why kyvat was promoted to red bull ahead of him in 2015. And obviously red bull really screwed up the whole Saint ordeal

    2. Russel tested for Mercedes and snapped up the lap record. Unofficially, as it was testing, but that man is fast and wasted at Williams. Look at his qualifying performance last Saturday. He consistently beats Kubica in qualifying and race with one chance exception in Germany.

    3. They should pick Norris or Russell if they don’t want a 2nd driver but a possible challenge to Verstapen instead.

      For me the clear path is hiring someone more experienced and that will deliver points, and I only see Perez, Hulk, Raikonen and Sainz with those qualities.

      It’s not a good idea to promote Albon and Kvyat needs to beat Albon first before dreaming about getting RB seat back, something that he isn’t doing pretty often.

    4. You can stay assured ricciardo is better than bottas and I’m one of those who consider bottas a decent driver! The problem is I’m not sure, despite the horrible renault experience, if ricciardo wants to come back to red bull, he wanted to gamble on another team, he got what he wanted.

      1. Oh, nevermind, you want ricciardo at mercedes, that’s doable, ricciardo wanted to change from red bull, mercedes is still the better team and he’s a direct upgrade to bottas, might cause a little friction with hamilton.

  9. If they were to swap out Gasly, the only viable drivers I think Red Bull have ‘in house’ are Kyvat and Albon.

    But is Kyvat ready for another shot at Red Bull and is there the potential for friction between him and Verstappen? I certainly think Kyvat would preform better than Gasly, but he also may not be as yielding towards Verstappen, especially as there’s the little fact that it was Max who replaced him at Red Bull mid season the last time.

    Albon I think would make a more natural second driver for the remainder of the season. But whilst he performances at the junior team have been impressive, a jump to the front lines might be a bit premature. He’s still in his rookie year and is lacking a lot of experience, especially of certain tracks having never run them in an F1 car and some having never run them in any car.

    Demoting Gasly might also have the same effect as Kyvat’s demotion had on him, where the Russian had a miserable season and that could be the last thing Torro Rosso want as they try to fortify their fifth place position in the Constructors Championship. Albon and Kyvat are starting to prove to be a solid pairing and a few more good results could move them further ahead of Renault. But one of those drivers and a demoralised Gasly might not be able to secure enough points to so.

    So, Red Bull’s options:
    Keep Gasly and hope he improves and starts scoring the points alongside Verstappen so that they have a shot at second in the constructors. Perhaps see if he can get his head together over the break.
    Demote him to the junior team and replace him with Kyvat/Albon.
    Sack him outright -which would be pretty harsh- replace him with Kyvat/Albonand bring someone in for the empty seat at Torro Rosso (Who dod they have thats avalaible?)
    Sack him outright, leave Kyvat/Albon at Torro Rosso and fill the empty seat with someone else.

    I think whatever option Red Bull pick, there’s going to be problems somewhere.

  10. Had alonso kept his mouth shut he might have a chance to get into that red bull…

    1. Alonso greatest performances is in burning bridges..

  11. Yeah the car is not suited for GAS, only for Max. Any top team has a number 1 driver and focuses on him. I am not sure if SAIN, ALB or JEV have a driving style closer to max. KVY is ofc destroyed by SAIN, so no point in thinking about him.a

  12. That mercedes contract is seriously hurting ocon. Last season he lost his possible seat (renault, haas?) and this year he might be the obvious candidate at red bull to replace gasly but merc won’t let him go. And red bull would never take a merc driver. And obviously neither should they. Taking mercedes backed ocon is nothing but a huge negative for red bull. Regardless of whether ocon does well or poorly the outcome is exactly the same for red bull. If ocon does well then merc will just take him away. Red bull needs to put either gasly back into the red bull or put albon or kvyat into gasly’s seat with gasly back to toro rosso. And when ocon goes to mercedes he would take all the honda and red bull technical info with him to mercedes as well. If ocon does poorly then red bull needs to get rid of him and put either gasly back to red bull or switch their drivers from toro rosso.

    I’d imagine the issue is toto. He wants those manager bonus dollars from ocon’s possible contract and won’t let ocon go until the contract ends. Letting ocon go from his merc contract would mean toto does not get paid either. From toto’s pov that is smart as toto’s cut from that possible contract could easily be as high as 10 million (see ricciardo’s manager issues). But for ocon it is killing his f1 career. In worst case ocon has to go to williams which is a likely career dead end.

    1. I vividly recall Toto stating that Mercedes would be willing to let Ocon go if he so chooses to race with another team. 🤔

    2. I can’t imagine how red Bull would manage the Verstappen / Ocon dynamic! Have we forgotten Brazil?

      1. i do not think Toto is able to manage the HAM/OCO dynamic.
        Ocon is a pain in … regarding his teammates. Ask Pereze.

        1. This is true. That’s why I hope it happened.

  13. just bring JEV back, he’s now a double FormulaE champion, and seems to have a lot of fans (important if both French drivers – GAS & GRO – get the boot over the next few months). Maybe he won’t challenge Max very ofter, but he knows the team, he knows the tracks and it won’t be very difficult to ouscore Gasly’s points tally over half a season. So why not, granted if he want to return…

    1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      5th August 2019, 15:55

      He could even leave for FE again at the end of the season

    2. Di Grassi is better than Vergne.

      1. You shouldnt bring drivers from the reject bin that is Formula E.

        Some drivers are good at slower speed, showing they can win there doesnt mean they are good again in Formula 1.

  14. No mention of the comments from HAM about Red Bull having an open seat? Thought that was shockingly poor taste…

    1. I think that was a very clear retort to Verstappen saying Hamilton had never had a team mate who’d pushed him, remember? So Hamilton was saying: so take Alonso, then, see how well you do against him. Admittedly Gasly was collateral damage in that exchange. But Hamilton’s point was, well, you too could have a driver alongside able to win the races you’re winning in that car. You’re not unique.

    2. No mention of the comments from HAM about Red Bull having an open seat? Thought that was shockingly poor taste…

      On a post where Gasly’s own team is complaining about his performance you want to have a go at Hamilton for stating that Gasly doesn’t have a contract next year? Seriously?

      In the same press conference Verstappen made a comment about Bottas and Vettel made jokes about Hamilton’s hair but you aren’t going to call any of that out as shockingly poor taste? Man the bias here is palpable.

      1. Exactly. Plus Hamilton’s retort was more in favor of Bottas than it was against Gasly. Max was the one who made the “disrespectful” (not really, though) comment first about Alonso talking to Toto about the seat next to Hamilton & Lewis retorted that Valtteri is doing fine & has been winning, so if anybody had a vacancy in the seat next to them, it would be Max. Vettel then threw in his two cents about Japan (Honda) maybe not liking the idea so much. The entire exchange was all in good fun, but of course Lewis said something so automatically fault will be found. Apparently it never gets old…

  15. Oof. Over halfway through the season, Verstappen has nearly 3 times as many points as Gasly, and I don’t think Gasly has the excuse of bad luck and car failures to explain the disparity.

    I’ve been watching F1 since 1994 and the only worse points ratio I am aware of in that time frame that’s comparable to Verstappen vs Gasly was Schumi vs his three teammates in 1994 (coincidentally including Jos Verstappen). The combined points total was 92 to 11. Some of that disparity was due to Schumi’s teammates’ abnormal amount of DNFs (9/16 races), but then again Schumi was also disqualified from four races and had two DNFs.

    Rosberg vs Schumi in 2010 & 2012 and Hamilton vs Kovalainen in 2008 & 2009 were roughly 2-1 points ratios, and in three of those cases the car wasn’t relatively as good as this Red Bull, so (assuming Verstappen continues to perform at the same high standard) Gasly has some catching up to do if he doesn’t want his season to stand out as the most disappointing in a long time.

    1. There is a massive difference to 1994 season and one Gasly is facing in RBR. All the Benetton teammates had described the car to be terrible and dangerous.

      1. I agree, just trying to make a statistical comparison for interest’s sake.

        It’s another example of a large points disparity between teammates over 10 or more races where the total number of points scored by the leading teammate was high. (A points total of say 5 vs 20 between teammates seems less unfavourable than 63 vs 181, even though it’s a worse ratio; if a driver has a poor season it becomes more notable and more evident when he’s in at least a decent car). As you say, Jos Verstappen & co had better excuses than Gasly does. As much as Max Verstappen is driving excellently, Gasly just seems downright slow by the standards of drivers in F1’s best seats. It would be nice to see him have more success in the remaining 10 races, of course.

    2. Alonso to Raikkonen in 2014 was nearly 3:1. Alonso had 161 points to Raikkonen’s 55.

      1. also raikkönen to gio is roughly 31:1 at the halfway point

        1. So Alonso already was WDC this year, in these maths ;)

    3. Sainz to Norris is also about 3:1.

      1. @spoutnik Kubica to Russell is 1 to nothing ;)

        1. Infinite win ratio >D

    4. Kovailenen won a race if I remember it right…

  16. I laugh out loud to all these “Bring back Alonso”-comments. Only one driver has truly exited the sport and come back in recent F1 history: Kimi Raikkonen, and he did not have Alonso’s reputation of creating a toxic team atmosphere filled to the brim with bile. Nobody is doubting his talent to turn the wheel, but Alonso is done with F1; whether he/we want it or not.

    Kvyat had his chance in RedBull, the only reason Dr. Marko went to him with his hat in his hands is because the RedBull Junior Driver pipeline is empty and Kvyat kept himself busy at Ferrari, learning from the enemy.
    There’s no way Dr. Marko will swallow enough of his pride to re-instate Kvyat back into the main team, after he was the one to kick him out with such fanfare. Let Kvyat keep a seat warm in the Toro Rosso for someone more worthy.

    Albon has has been fast enough this year and has shown the ability to quickly learn the car. He needs consistency and that comes with experience. When RedBull replases Gasly with, it’ll be Albon, this would also serve to bring credibility to their own driver programme. Albon is still not quite ready for the main team, however, and so Gasly is safe until the end of the year.

    PS: Kimi @ Ferrari 2020, c’mon!

    1. Kimi and Max at Ferrari!!
      You never know….

    2. Why would Ferrari drop Leclerc or Vettel for Kimi again?

      1. Trying out a new driver lineup strategy? “Strategy F”, anyone? :D

        Ferrari wouldn’t drop either driver, they would be crazy to do so. The only team with a better lineup right now, is Mercedes, but it is entirely possible one of the Ferrari drivers may quit or receive an offer they cannot refuse somewhere else.

      2. – Too many offs into the barriers
        – More precise car dev feedback from Kimi
        – Better qual than Kimi, yes, but no race wins
        – No coolness factor

        1. Leclerc is like Verstappen in 2016. Give him time and he will come to the fore.

        2. And Ferrari are in the process of signing him to a contract through 2024.
          Alonso said he’s a star and he knows talent.

    3. Andrie Hartanto
      5th August 2019, 17:51

      Grosjean also left for a few years and came back, ironically coincide with Kimi comeback both driving for Lotus

  17. Red Bull Racing could do with a driver like Valtteri Bottas alongside Max Verstappen for the future…..

  18. Stoffel was given pressure like this also.

  19. If the plan is to demote him to torrorosso I think they should keep him for the remainder of the season. He’ll be even worse in the new toro Rosso car, and his replacement needs to adapt fast to the Red Bull.

    If they want to drop him entirely, now in the summer break would a good time to bring a temporary outside driver for only the remainder of the season. But i highly doubt its happening judging by horners comments above.

    1. Most likely scenario is to have Gasly at RB for the remaining “pre-2021 Rules”-time. It would not surprise me at all to see them keep him and assist in getting whatever performance he has as best they can. There simply aren’t any viable choices thatare more likely to improve the situation than deteriorate it. Further more, people seem to forget that it is Gasly’s first year in a front running team. Gasly is a quick driver no doubt, he may just need more time to adapt his way of preparation to/during the weekend.

      1. Further more, people seem to forget that it is Gasly’s first year in a front running team.

        Why do you think so? Nobody did forget that. This is F1 and if you got there, you must perform at a certain level. Remember Max’ first race in a front running team? Charles, Lewis, Seb… man, even Bot also didn’t have any problems in their first years at the front. It’s okay if you need 3-4 races to adapt, but it’s half a year already for Gasly. I also sympathized with him at first, but it is harder and harder to do so with every race now.

      2. This is the first year for Norris, Albon and Russell full stop. None of them have been schooled by their teammates and in the case of Russell, have been showing them up.

        Gasly isn’t a quick driver compared to his peers, be it his teammate or drivers in worse cars. Sainz has almost as many points as him.

      3. If this keeps up red bull would be stupid to keep him for the next season. Horner isn’t going to do it.

  20. You can’t win a race in the first lap but you can certainly lose it.

    This mantra is lost on the likes of Bottas and Gasly especially.

    How many times has Gasly went backwards on lap one and ruined his entire race because of it? Spending the race unable to pass McLarens? Pathetic.

    Norris shown you can overtake if you get things right and Gasly looked like he just didn’t have the fight in him to take on other cars, despite having a superior car.

    The stats don’t lie, he’s out of his depth and RBR should find someone who isn’t, fast.

  21. Bottas to redbull next year would be a good shout (assuming merc drop him). Would pick up the regular points redbull want and push verstappen more than any of the current torro rosso drivers/gasly

    1. I think I agree. I liked Bottas at Williams, he is quite quick. You can’t blame a driver for being beaten by Hamilton and he is close enough to keep Hamilton honest, especially in qualifying. His main problem is his incapibility to decisively overtake something. That might be a problem at Red Bull where they don’t qualify very well most of the time…
      Apart from that I am afraid Wolf will keep his claws on him. And maybe RB will think he is a bit dull for their marketing.

      1. I cant imagine Redbull looking outside their feeders unless it was Hamilton or perhaps Vettel.
        I am thinking Ocon to Merc, Bottas to Williams, Kubica to leave (like the guy and fun experiment but too slow now), If they replace Gasley a swap of Kvyat/Gasley. Albon is doing well too but probably needs another season like Gasly probably did.

        then when Hamilton retires next year, Russel to Merc.

        1. Yes, hamilton or vettel, just because they have 5 and 4 titles, must be better than anyone else.

          Piquet = senna, vettel = prost, ascari\clark = fittipaldi etc.

          Or perhaps titles are not everything and vettel is not better than drivers with 0 titles (ricciardo\verstappen), nostalgia aside I wouldn’t take vettel back at red bull!

          Hamilton, while not the best in history, is certainly another matter.

    2. I agree, although Merc are kidding themselves if tehy think Ocon would do better than Bottas. Ocon would be massively on the back foot and i reckon Bottas is a step above

  22. Sonny Crockett
    5th August 2019, 12:50

    I accept that Gasly is underperforming but is his performance being made to look worse because Max is actually overperforming?

    If Red Bull’s car genuinely is a championship contender then I find it hard to believe that Gasly would be so far off the pace on race day.

    Anyway, Bottas to RBR for 2020?!

    1. but is his performance being made to look worse because Max is actually overperforming?

      At the end of the day who knows, Maybe Red Bull built a 2013 style GOAT car and both their drivers are under performing.

    2. True, but you should never get lapped in a healthy car by your teammate, not in this era. There is something wrong there. It must be a mental issue or something related to the driveability of the car (contributing to the mental issues). I feel for Gasly. It’s a vicious circle that Gasly will not get out of I’m afraid.

      1. Yes, this is a 1994 schumacher’s team mate-like performance, it’s bad!

    3. Being beaten by a McLaren shows that Gasly is just bad. The me fact that Max is performing to the limits (impossible and illogical to exceed the limits of the car) makes Gasly look even worse.

  23. The baffling thing here is that Marko, normally ruthless where dispensing with underperformers is concerned, has already been on record to confirm GAS will be retained for the season.

    The lad is clearly not at the races and is potentially costing the team a P2 on the WCC standings. I’d wager good money that both KVY and ALB would be doing a better job than GAS is in the RB15.

    1. Marko has made a hash of the RB young drivers programme and has been thrashing about for options since 2017 as a result poor Hartley was dragooned in to fill the gap.

      It’s that mess as much as anything else which has put Gasly in that seat and it is clearly not working.

      Some drivers can move up swiftly and successfully to a top team – Hamilton and Verstappen are good examples – others need “running in” time to digest their experience and form their skill set and metal attitude to the higher pressures of a top team.

  24. To be honest I can’t see what Red Bull are going to do.

    Demoting Gasly to Toro Rosso could have as negative an effect on him as it did on Kvyat and it did Red Bull a lot of bad PR. Promoting Kvyat – after dropping him not just from Red Bull but Toro Rosso too, while a great redemptive story doesn’t paint the RB driver programme in a good light. Promoting Albon – after only one year runs the risk of promoting him too early in the same way they argued they did with Kvyat and now potentially Gasly. They also are probably aware that while they’ll keep Verstappen for at least next year, the future is unknown – and it would appear Gasly is not a good enough successor.

    To my mind the only options available to Red Bull are to hire an established driver (Bottas/Ocon/Hulkenberg/Vettel/Alonso) but in doing that it makes a joke of the RB driver programme, or stick it out with Gasly and hope he improves. At least for now they seem prepared to wait for Gasly but I get the feeling that if he fails in the second half of the year he won’t be demoted to Toro Rosso and instead will be bounced out of the Red Bull team completely.

    1. Demoting Gasly to Toro Rosso () did Red Bull a lot of bad PR.

      Which all got forgotten a few days later when Max won, @rocketpanda.

      And re-hiring Vettel would actually do a lot of good for the RB driver programme; ones you’ve been in, you remain a part of the family.

      1. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
        5th August 2019, 15:54

        Kvyat and Hartley also left and came back again. I could see Vettel going back if Max leaves. Could see him going to Merc either depending on how things shake out

  25. Yep. This is all Pierre’s fault…..
    Look I am no Gasly fan, but seriously. When does RB take some of the blame here? I really dislike that they are blaming Gasly for this. I 100% agree that he should not be in the RB car. But who put him there?

    Option 1 : You have MV and DR in your team and probably have more team points than Ferrari right now. (Not possible as you alienated DR to the point where he went to Renault!)
    Option 2 : You have MV and Carlos Sainz in your team. (Not possible as you alienated CS to the point where he went to McLaren!)
    Option 3 : You have MV and Alonso in your team (Not possible as you aren’t skilled enough to make that happen without offending people)
    Option 4 : You have MV and Daniel Kyvat in your team. (Oh wait, you destroyed DK’s confidence after promoting him too early like you are doing to Gasly now)
    Option 5 : You sign some other decent drivers and promote them to F1. (Oh wait, your shining light was Dan Tictum who literally tried to kill other drivers with his racing car. But you kept him after that and were amazed when he didn’t work out…. Ummm… Seriously…. You were surprised when he didn’t make it)
    …..
    …..
    Option 8 : You put Pastor Maldonado in your car.
    …..
    Option 10 : You grab a guy that isn’t great and you promote him before he is ready. (Yep. Let’s do that and blame him when it goes wrong.)

    I could live with the the Gasly bashing if it came from anyone but RB. He’s been poor and everyone needs to be held accountable to their performances. But here is the thing. RB have performed extremely poorly since they signed Verstappen. They lost their 2 other star drivers and have failed to sign anyone decent in the last 5 years.

    RB can blame Gasly all they like. But their lack of decent driving options is all down to them unfortunately. You could put my grandma in the RB car and blame her for being poor too. But… she’s 80, so why did you sign her in the first place? Especially when have a couple of sub 30 year old whipper snappers already driving for you? Definitely my Nan’s fault though RB! And Gasly’s. And Kvyat’s.

    It’s definitely Ericsson’s fault too. He definitely hit them when they weren’t looking. And according to Horner after the race “Max’s former team mate did him no favours” Yep. Dan lost Max that race…. Duude. When do the excuses stop.

    No wonder Max wants out as well. And when he leaves… then what Mr Horner. Are you going to start talking to my Grandma again?

    1. @mickharrold I was about to post something similar.

      The blame lies squarely with Red Bull management on this one. They had the best lineup in Formula 1, Verstappen and Ricciardo, but they just didn’t care enough or have the management skills to keep Ricciardo content, making it far too obvious that MV was the one they wanted and DR was incidental. Is it any wonder Gasly is struggling when even Ricciardo, a better driver, years of experience at Red Bull, great relation with the team, with no real inclination to leave, felt driven out by their Max love-fest? Very few could or will survive in that environment, it would take supreme talent and/or self-confidence, plus for Red Bull to ease off on the bias. None of this is criticism of Verstappen, by the way. He’s just carving out his career as he should.

      1. RIC was just affraid of Max and went for the money and works team deal

        1. @anunaki Maybe so, the points still stands, RBR didn’t do enough to keep him, they gave every impression he was dispensable.

        2. No man should be afraid of another if he just came off a 3 year winning streak against him.

    2. RB didnt ‘alienate’ either DR or CS, both are adults and made their own choices.
      Choices which are fully understandable by the way.

      CS wanted to be promoted to RB from TR. He didn’t get it (because of course, with DR and MV they had a great driver pair already). So he chose to move on, which is understandable. If he had not moved on, he might be in that RB seat now, but of course he had no way of knowing DR would leave. And he seems a good fit at McLaren, so perhaps it was for the best after all.

      DR chose a combination of big money and an outside chance at a championship over a secure top-5-but-not-champion ranking. At RB, even if they did produce a championship winning car (unlikely, as a non-works team), he would have to outdrive MV for it. But if Renault were to somehow do what Abiteboul claimed and produced a championship winning car, he would only have to deal with Hulkenberg.
      And if they didn’t, well, he’d still have a huge paycheck.

      Don’t make DR and CS the vicitims and RB the bad guy, it is really not rooted in reality. All parties involved made their decisions in their best interest, as they should.

      1. I don’t think Carlos Sainz was ever an option.
        For a time last season, after Ricciardo signed with Renault, he was on the market and it seemed obvious that he was getting the seat, as Red Bull offered that loan to Renault to keep him, but then he signed with Mclaren out of nowhere.

        He obviously didn’t decided to move on before running out of options at Red Bull. Who would do that?
        It was clear they didn’t want him alongside Verstappen and chose Gasly instead, for some reason.

        1. The moment Sainz chose to make a point of leaving TR, he chose to leave Red Bull, so that choise was made in 2017 when he decided to go to Renault on loan. After that, he never was a serious option to go to Red Bull, not even after Ricciardo left. I don’t know what happened, but somehow he overplayed his hand at Red Bull or decided his career would be better off without Red Bull.

  26. @mickharrold – you forgot about option 11. Get Mark Webber back in the car :)D

    1. @mickharrold @ming-mong
      Option 12 : Get Bottas and sign Ocon to stay in RB’s paddock. Problem solved.

  27. Nice dig at Bottas, Horner. It seems that he may be sending a signal signal to Bottas to stay away from the RBR motorhome after the break if Gasly gets the boot. As for Gasly, I don’t see what’s wrong with giving Albon and Kyvat a go in some sessions after the break. I do feel really bad for him. You don’t get to this level (without a Stroll-daddy) by being a hack and without hard work. It’s hard to imagine why he just can’t get on terms with this car now.

  28. Sorry? You mean Alfa Romeo?

  29. It is getting very embarrassing for RB more than KVY back than. Time to open that door again Mr Marko.

    1. Kvyat did much better with equipment nowhere near as good as this.
      He wasn’t really a problem back then. He did some serious mistake on Russia that took both cars and Vettel out, but these things happen.

      His performance was ok, but they were looking for a reason to promote Verstappen (who was doing great at TR) and that was the perfect opportunity. Verstappen was going to take that seat sooner or later that season anyway. Jos Verstappen was in talks with other teams and they did that to keep him.

      1. When you think about it. Vettel has done more distruction while Kvyat was away, even some torpedoing and crashing out all on his own in recent time. Which just shows that these things can happen.

  30. From my understanding they chose Pierre over Carlos. Carlos had it in his contract that they could recall him but only to Red Bull not to Torro Rosso. Bet they are regretting that choice now

  31. Am I the only one that thinks Max would humiliate Alonso if he replaced Gasly? Didn’t we see this with Rosberg vs Schumacher and yet Nico wasn’t operating at the level Max is at right now (in my opinion).

    1. Yes, you are.

      1. @edmarques
        Don’t pretend to speak for anyone but yourself, as you do a terrible job at it.

        We don’t all buy the crap knowledge that “alonso is stronger than all”. He’s a crybaby, and worse, a quitter! Then he’s a pretty good driver… IN THAT ORDER.

    2. no, your not alone in that .
      There is everything to loose for Alonso and nothing to gain. His F1 days are over.

    3. I’m not even a max fan, but max would mop the floor with alonso, he’s not that good, and a downright crybaby when life doesn’t go his way.

    4. Schumacher was 41-43 when he faced rosberg, I recommend you read some stuff like f1 metrics article about how much driver’s performance goes down after 35, and how much after 40.

      Alonso is younger and would be competitive for a few years, however a few months ago I said alonso and verstappen complete each other with making no mistakes\experience vs speed, now I think verstappen could still be overall superior, with a little more speed and not making mistakes, regardless a strong team mate pairing.

  32. Here’s an idea – Hulkenberg to Red Bull on a 1-year contract next year.

    Red Bull will have observed Hulk measure up fairly close to Ricciardo, for whom they obviously hold a lot of data and understanding (also Hulkenberg has described their driving styles as very similar).

    He’s available, having not yet renewed his contract at Renault. He’s fast enough, and has not got a record as a disruptor of team harmony like Alonso. He’s experienced but still hungry, and would be sufficiently desperate to get in a front-running car to take a 1-year deal as a chance to prove himself. Then, come the 2020 silly season, Red Bull have the choice of sticking with Hulk (if he’s performing), or promoting a driver from STR (if hopefully they have one ready by then).

    This option would also give them some insurance against Verstappen getting lured into a silver or red car. Hiring someone experienced takes away the very real risk of ending up with two inexperienced drivers – something surely very undesirable as a top team.

    1. I really think this seems like the most sensible option for RBR in 2020. Gasly may improve enough to stay but I doubt it.

      Hulk may well be ditched by Renault anyway. He is making a few negative comments about the team and if Ocon does not get the Merc drive Renault will be his natural second choice. Hulk may not have many spectacular results but he is solid and pretty consistent. Just what RBR need in their second car.

      1. Think it’s a good one, you should get red bull to notice it, before verstappen gets lured to ferrari and red bull takes stroll!

    2. The hulk illusion is long gone… I’d put Kvyat in that car before Hulkenberg. At least Kvyat would know what to do on the podium.

      1. Breaking news: “hulkenberg falls off podium after first ever 2nd place, he’ll miss the next 2 races”!

  33. Horner just needs to lobby Liberty/FIA for one car teams. Effective immediately. Problem solved.

  34. “We shouldn’t be racing Saubers and McLarens” OUCH! Two teams who were around even before Red Bull was born.

  35. There seems to be a lot of exaggerating when it comes to evaluating the abilities of some of these young drivers. It’s like getting married after one date because she looked great that night. Ends in much avoidable disappointment and whining.

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