Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, Imola, 2020

Gasly “surprised” Red Bull didn’t consider him for 2021 return

2020 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly is surprised he wasn’t considered for a return to Red Bull next year after winning for AlphaTauri in Monza.

AlphaTauri, the sister team to Red Bull, confirmed earlier this week Gasly will continue to drive for them next year. Red Bull is considering a possible replacement for Alexander Albon, who took Gasly’s place at the team last year.

Gasly said he doesn’t know why Red Bull didn’t consider him for a return based on the strength of his performances this year. He won the Italian Grand Prix at Monza – the second victory for the former Toro Rosso team wince Sebastian Vettel’s 2008 triumph – and is just one point behind Albon in the championship despite an inferior car.

“I’m not disappointed, I’m just surprised,” said Gasly. “In 14 years Seb won a race with Toro Rosso, I’m the only other driver who won a race. Seb got promoted to Red Bull and won four titles with the team. So I must say I’m just surprised I wasn’t really considered.

“I had two podiums with Toro Rosso, I think this season is doing alright. On my side the only thing I can do is try to put some strong performances to give me opportunities in the future. That’s the only thing I can do after everything is sorted.

“I don’t really want to thing about this any more. I need to perform as much as I can for AlphaTauri. I’m happy to be here and just focussed on this weekend, trying to get the best result I can for the team.”

Drivers, Circuit de Catalunya, 2020
2021 F1 drivers and teams
Red Bull made it clear to Gasly at an early stage that he wasn’t under consideration for a return to the team in the 2021 F1 season.

“They have their strategy, it’s down to the them,” he said. “I think if you want a better answer it’s better to ask them straight away.

“On my side I think it’s been made clear to me I will continue already since quite a while with this team and as I say I’m not disappointed. I’m performing at a great level, I’m able to show my potential, I’m able to show my speed, my skills. As I say I’m 24 years old, obviously my goal in Formula 1 is to fight at the top and fight for the championship.

“But at the moment I just need to perform and do the best job I can in the team I am. I’m not disappointed, I’m really happy to continue with AlphaTauri for another year and I’ll keep doing my best for this team.”

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2020 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

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26 comments on “Gasly “surprised” Red Bull didn’t consider him for 2021 return”

  1. Of course, but he should be happy they did not consider him. The 2nd seat at Red Bull is the worst to have on the grid.

    1. They have all the data they need. Personally I would stay silent, might become embarrassing.

    2. I absolutely disagree: ricciardo was performing, I’m not gonna say on par with verstappen but close enough, and he had the top seat before verstappen outperformed him, so it’s all about talent and even as a number 2 he wasn’t exactly embarassed (ricciardo).

  2. gasly, did kvyat ever return?

    1. That’s the worst comparision ever. Has Kvyat ever done something deserving of a return after being dropped, appart from a very lucky podium at Germany last year?

      He’s only at Alpha Tauri because RBR didn’t have any other driver to put in one of their seats.

      1. Kvyat had a podium in Germany last year.

        1. @arigold take a look at that comment above again and it does say “appart from a very lucky podium at Germany last year”

          I myself think Kvyat has been a bit underrated this season though. Qualifying has been his weakness, but his starts and early race stints have very often been better than Gasly. Italy and Britain for example. Catching right up over the first few laps. I would say Gasly’s win was just as lucky as Kvyat’s podium last year. Gasly’s pace in Italy looked nowhere at all in the first stint, despite being on soft tyres. Kvayt was on harder, slower tyres, but he had recovered from his poor qualifying again and was all over the back of Gasly. His strategy of going long(when he had really good pace) then got ruined by the safety car and Gasly as underwhelming as he was early on benefited from this, but then admittedly was flawless after that. But in terms of performance that race, I can’t say Gasly was any better than Kvyat, and despite it not looking the case, I think Kvyat has more or less been close to Gasly most races this year. Some such as last race and a few others he’s been poor, but then Gasly looked pretty poor in Russia and made a optimistic move at tuscany too that ended his race.

          Gasly is clearly better, but I’m not sure that Kvyat is 100% going to leave this team. I found it quite interesting that the team boss said at the start of the year that these two together were the strongest line up the team has had. That was before Gasly surprised us and Kvyat has arguably had his best season for several years.

  3. Seems like he believed he had a chance, shows how bad redbull are managing their young driver program, not communicating enough with their drivers who are even actually competing in the top echelon of motorsport ‘f1’.

    1. “shows how bad redbull are managing their young driver program”
      You mean the program that made Gasly win a gp?
      You mean the program that made Verstapppen win several gp’s?
      You mean the program that made Ricciardo win several gp’s?
      You mean the program that made Vettel a multiple WDC?
      You mean the program that allowed Vergne, Buemi, Kvyat, Albon, Da Costa, Visser, Hartley, Sainz, Camara, O’Ward etc.to have a professional racing career?

      Last I checked they are managing the most succesfull young driver program ever, but feel free to enlighten me and name a better managed young driver program.

      1. i don’t think the problem is the junior program… the problem is that with Verstappen in the other car its not easy for a junior leave a mark …….. even Ricciardo left Red Bull because Verstappen i don’t think because he want try another team …….

      2. Well they sure as heck are doing better than the Mercedes young driver program. At least their you g drivers get a chance.

        1. Indeed, mercedes one is a disgrace, even ferrari one is better!

      3. Remember, Verstapen didn’t come out of Red Bull young drivers program. Vettel, Ricciardo and Sainz are red bull products.

      4. They’re just the “Redeeming Qualities” about the team itself…

  4. There is nothing like entitlement in F1.
    You work quietly behind the scenes to achieve promotion.
    Screaming in front of the media that it is not fair will only make you more enemies.
    Who says you have to be at Redbull to be a race winner or world champion.
    It makes sense for Redbull to have a strong junior team with a strong driver than have too very competitive drivers in one team.

  5. The reality is this. His only success in GrandPrix racing comes from the failure of others that gifted him the win. Nothing he did except get REAL lucky. Now to act like he is King Shift about it, pretty much explains why he didn’t get the call back.
    Gasly after you catch a half dozen poles and through regular fair and challenging races your results show race winning consistency and done so by wringing the last little bit out of the car every moment while on the track.
    Mr.Gasly you accomplish this then more than RedBull will be seeking your service.
    Today you just aren’t there and the gift victory shows us nothing more than you had a moment of good luck. You didn’t make it happen. It happen to you.

    1. Indeed, that’s exactly what I think, very entitled and he was just lucky, I already when the race happened wasn’t impressed by him and voted for sainz, who imo deserved more.

  6. GtisBetter (@)
    30th October 2020, 15:46

    Gasly would only make sense if they stick to their principle of only promoting drivers of their own program. If they considering drivers outside RB then there are better options.

  7. I think there must have been more diplomatic ways to criticize RB’s decision to not promote him, he should had spoken about it with his business advisors and devise a plan, as it was clear from as far back as 2 weeks ago that he wasn’t going to get the job. It was also clear, that when the time came, the media was going to be making questions and he must have had a few answers to provide interviewers.

    My conclusion from all this is that Gasly comes unprepared to do his job, at least the media part of it, because that’s we have access to; so maybe, there are some other aspects of his professional demeanor that do not fit with Horner’s business practices and that might be the main reason why Horner wants none of him.

    Sad because he is a fast driver, just not a complete one.

  8. The win was excellent but quite fortunate – if Sainz had been ahead of him on the road I don’t think he’d have caught him. Or Stroll, if he hadn’t thrown the car off the road. That’s not to say he didn’t drive well, but it wasn’t quite the same as Vettel’s win. Ever since that win though he has been talking quite loudly about how he expects to be repaid for his efforts, as though the win automatically guaranteed him promotion, which probably didn’t go down well at Red Bull.

    Though Red Bull have been talking up AlphaTauri as less of a junior squad and more of a team in its own right of late, so maybe they like the idea of having the proven hand of Gasly lead AT as much as Verstappen leading RBR, though clearly Gasly doesn’t want to do that. Though given what he was like at Red Bull I can’t say I’d want to see him back. He was much worse than Albon, and has done so much better at AlphaTauri I think it’d be better for him to stay put.

    1. I’d say much worse than LAST year’s albon, not this year’s!

  9. Gasly is a fine driver.
    Pundits and armchair fans like most of us should realise that RBR has a big information advantage over us. Knowing the exact drivers’ data, and also how good Gasly was in cooperating with engineers etc.
    If RBR mgt judges that Gasly should not be in the 2nd seat, what reasons should we have to challenge that?

  10. I think Gasly is better than Albon so very surprise if Albon stays

  11. Gasly often sounds arrogant and for now, results doesn’t back up his talk.

  12. What’s the rumor?
    Isn’t there a Japanese driver interest?
    What are the facts?

    1. Was that the Yuki Tsunoda to AlphaTauri rumour you mean?

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