Marko rules out Red Bull replacing Gasly mid-season
Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has silenced talk that Pierre Gasly’s future at the Formula 1 team is again in doubt, by confirming that the Frenchman will see out the season.
Another difficult weekend for Gasly at the German Grand Prix, which included a crash in practice and a race-ending clash with Alex Albon, has fuelled further speculation about his future with the Milton Keynes-based outfit.
His situation has also not been helped by Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat recording a podium finish, meaning Red Bull has an obvious replacement if it needs one.
However, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has made it clear that the team is committed to Gasly for the rest of 2019 at least.
“This year we won't change,” he told Motorsport.com. “We will end the season as we currently are.”
But asked if Kvyat’s growing form put Gasly under pressure, Marko said: “Sure.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Gasly experienced highs and low over the weekend in Germany, as he expressed some frustration at the points lost by the late collision with Albon.
“It was up and down,” said Horner about Gasly’s weekend. “He had a good qualifying, but then he had a difficult first pitstop – there was a problem with the right rear wheelnut. And then they had to hold him because the whole queue of cars came in.
“He started recovering, and on the last restart he passed [Sebastian] Vettel. But then he went wide on three consecutive laps at Turn 1, and that's where the other cars got past him.
“Then obviously racing with Albon, they tripped over each other, which was frustrating because it was a good opportunity today to take a lot of points out of Ferrari. So instead of taking 20-odd points out of them, we've only taken seven or eight.”
Horner suggested that Red Bull now needed Gasly to start delivering more points if it was to have any hopes of overhauling Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.
Asked if second place was achievable this year, Horner said: “I think if we start double scoring. That's our target in the second half of the year, to really close that gap down.”
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB15, Pierre Gasly, Red Bull Racing RB15
Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images
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