Carlos Sainz Jnr says he is sure Helmut Marko and Christian Horner will make the best choices for Pierre Gasly’s career, as the Red Bull team bosses prepare to make their driver choices for next season.
Sainz was previously a member of Red Bull’s young driver programme. He drove for Toro Rosso – now AlphaTauri – for three seasons from 2015 but was never promoted to Red Bull, and switched to Renault during the final races of the 2017 season.Gasly, Sainz’s successor at the team, moved up to Red Bull at the beginning of last year, but was relegated back to Toro Rosso halfway through the season.
Since then Gasly has scored a surprise win for AlphaTauri at Monza, and Red Bull is weighing up who to partner Max Verstappen with next year. Gasly is now being tipped to emulate Sainz’s switch to Renault.
Asked whether he believed Gasly would be allowed to do the same as he had by leaving the Red Bull stable to further his career, Sainz said: “I don’t know – it’s case by case, driver by driver, different scenarios. You guys know my story and why I left or why I was allowed to leave and move to Renault.”
Sainz joined Renault as part of a deal which included Red Bull using their power units. “Pierre’s career is very different to mine,” Sainz continued. “And the fact that he went to Red Bull and now he’s back in Toro Rosso, performing at a very high level is a whole different situation.”
Gasly is only the second driver to win a race for the Faenza-based team, having emulated Sebastian Vettel’s 2008 feat by taking victory for them at Monza. While there has been no indication Gasly might get a second chance at Red Bull, Sainz believes his former team will do what’s best for his career.
“I’m sure Helmut Marko, Christian Horner, they are very wise and [were] very objective with their decisions they took for me, personally,” he said. “They helped me a lot in my career.
“So I’m sure they’re going to help Pierre and they’re going to take the right decision for Pierre because for me, I just have good words and kind words for Red Bull for what they did for me in my career.”
Asked by RaceFans whether joining Renault would be a smart move for Gasly, Sainz said: “I’m not here to give any career advice to other drivers or anything like that. But for Pierre as a French driver I guess going to Renault has even more importance or even more significance than even to me it was in the past.
“I would wish him the best because I think Pierre is doing an excellent job right now in Formula 1 and it would be nice to see him continue and progress through his career.”
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Jere (@jerejj)
24th October 2020, 7:40
”Sainz joined Renault as part of a deal which included Red Bull using their power units.”
– But Red Bull was already using Renault PU before Sainz joined the works team on-loan, long before this team change.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
24th October 2020, 12:55
@jerejj yup, that statement is a bit incomplete, the deal was to break contract early.
Cristian Ingles (@doctorlovesexy)
24th October 2020, 8:04
Altough I think Gasly is a fine driver and should leave the Red Bull program, Renault is not the place to go. He doesn’t seem like a very strong driver mentally (see last year Red Bull career) and if Alonso still got it, in 2-3 races when he takes the rust off, he’s gonna trounce Gasly and you don’t want such a young driver with post-traumatic syndrome after suffering the beating of Verstappen and Alonso.
baasbas
24th October 2020, 8:13
Interesting choice of words by Carlos. I remember a different kind of words when he was in the fold but wanted to get away. It warranted a public telling off by Horner even
Patrick (@paeschli)
24th October 2020, 8:42
He want to leave the door open if Red Bull has a seat available in the future
Mayrton
24th October 2020, 9:27
Thats how I read his comments too
Klon (@)
24th October 2020, 10:32
Are we sure Carlos didn’t mean it sarcastically?
baasbas
24th October 2020, 12:35
My thoughts exactly :-)
DonSmee (@david-beau)
24th October 2020, 12:58
Gasly could go there after Alonso retires again.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
24th October 2020, 12:59
Max trounced Carlos and then Gasly, rejoining Rb could end Pierre’s career. RB did not promote Daniil or Pierre or Albon, by choice, now having time to decide, they won’t deliberately take a bad decision, one that could end someones career.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
25th October 2020, 1:33
Gasly isn’t expected to beat or even equal verstappen, it’d be enough if he were verstappen’s bottas, the thing is both he and albon performed far worse than that at red bull, if he expects to be that bad, then it’s a good idea to not go to red bull.