Red Bull did not expect to have to shoehorn Pierre Gasly into its line-up for the 2019 Formula 1 season, but the Frenchman’s early promotion should be good news for both parties.
In Formula 1 a career can often be made or broken on the whim of timing.
A year ago many were pondering when Gasly would be afforded his opportunity to compete in Formula 1, having effectively been sent on a gap year to Japan off the back of his GP2 title. Toro Rosso persisted with Daniil Kvyat, while Carlos Sainz Jr. angled for a seat elsewhere, the machinations falling into place just a week before Gasly eventually got the call to drive in Malaysia.
Sainz Jr. was ostensibly next in line for Red Bull through the latter half of 2016 and much of 2017, but sensed that the desire for a Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen pairing long-term at the senior team meant another year at the junior outfit was unpalatable, thus resulting in his loan arrangement with Renault, while in the sister car patience with Kvyat ran out, and Gasly's patience was in turn rewarded.
It left Gasly as the de facto team leader at Toro Rosso and he has impressed during his infrequent opportunities to take the Honda-powered STR13 into the higher echelons of the midfield.
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Fourth place in Bahrain was an unexpectedly stunning high just two races into the season – and in only the seventh Grand Prix of his career – while there were other superb drives to seventh in Monaco and sixth in Hungary, the latter achievement possible courtesy of inspired laps in the tricky damp/dry/wet qualifying session. Maximising such chances will not have gone unnoticed by Helmut Marko.
There have also been encouraging displays at other events where the machinery has been towards the lower end of the midfield, including a strong charge to 11th in Canada, and the same result in Austria, having driven a machine he compared to a rallycross car after it was inflicted with first-lap damage.
Just as important as results in the eyes of Red Bull is the approach and attitude taken by its young drivers. While Gasly is not a like-for-like replacement for Ricciardo (who is, in terms of personality?) he is an outgoing and amiable figure who will be well suited to a company that is, in effect, a marketing operation. He spent months playing the Circle Game, and slyly yelled “now we can fight” after taking fourth in Bahrain – a race after Fernando Alonso made the same comment in McLaren’s first post-Honda Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s junior team can be a ruthless place but the organisation retained faith in Gasly through some rocky moments. He infamously failed to win a single-seater race for over 1000 days in the wake of being signed by Red Bull at the culmination of his 2013 title-winning Formula Renault 2.0 campaign. There were errors and setbacks, but his perseverance was impressive, and he finally got on top of Pirelli’s notoriously fickle GP2 tyres, with excessive wear having been a weakness on account of his naturally aggressive driving style. That trait has aided him in Formula 1 this season – witness his long stint in Hungary that solidified his status as the Class B victor.
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Having taken several poles and a healthy haul of podiums, his breakthrough win finally came at Silverstone mid-2016, just a race after throwing his GP2/11 machine into the gravel in drizzly weather in Austria, and mere days after he was involved in a serious road car collision en route to Silverstone that left him with a back injury and his mother in hospital. That triumph proved the catalyst for a title charge and he was comfortably the fastest driver through most of the remaining events, even if fortune was not always on his side. He (usually) retained his composure off-track through those low moments, and was able to clear the air with Red Bull management after some lost-in-translation and mis-quoted comments about a potential F1 graduation. Our paths crossed several times during his two years in GP2 and he was always an approachable character, through good times and bad, often providing a handy quote, and has remained refreshingly honest in Formula 1, though there may need to be some more tongue-biting once ensconsed within the surroundings of a top team!
Gasly’s pure pace is not in doubt. There remain question marks about the ability to consistently fight at the front, as opposed to catching the eye with a handful of standout drives, but such a statement applies to every driver who has made the leap – we simply do not know until they are there.
Gasly’s experience with Honda will also be beneficial through what could be an initial learning period for both team and manufacturer. Gasly spent 2017 competing for the Mugen outfit in Super Formula – almost winning the title – and he admitted that the different culture of the Japanese engineers compared to the European counterparts with which he had been accustomed was eye-opening. He has, of course, continued working with Honda this year courtesy of Toro Rosso’s partnership. That knowledge will prove invaluable going forward, as Red Bull prepares to join forces with Honda after over a decade of running Renault engines.
Gasly’s presence will also likely enable Red Bull to achieve its desired effect of installing Verstappen as the number one within the team, a fear that had played on Ricciardo’s mind as he was weighing up his decision. Conversely, Gasly will, even as the less experienced racer, surely be keen to ensure that he is not heading there purely as second fiddle – and the outcome will surely produce a fiery spectacle, even between two drivers who currently enjoy a healthy relationship.
Much of next season for the Milton Keynes operation will depend on how quickly and efficiently the new Red Bull-Honda partnership works both on- and off-track. But if it can reach a competent – or better – level, then don’t be surprised if Gasly grabs his chance to prove why his earlier-than-expected promotion is justified.
