Pierre Gasly affirms that he feels ready to return to Red Bull following his shock maiden Formula 1 victory on Sunday at Monza.
Gasly withstood pressure from Carlos Sainz in the latter stages of the Italian Grand Prix to take his first win for AlphaTauri, almost one year on from his demotion from the top team.
Following his relegation from the senior team, Gasly has performed strongly, scoring points consistently and picking up his first podium in Brazil last year.
Although his stint at Red Bull in 2019 was met with poor results alongside Max Verstappen, the Frenchman feels prepared to once again make the step up where he would replace Alexander Albon, who hasn’t been able to match the Dutchman.
“I think I’m ready but as I said, it’s not up to me to make that call,” Gasly said.
“The only thing I’ve done since they moved me back to Toro Rosso [AlphaTauri] has been just to focus on myself and just show what I can do.
“When I get the right tools in my hand, I’m really happy that the performance we’ve shown – and I’m not only talking about Brazil but I think generally, we’ve been pretty strong most of the time.
“We’ve had some really strong qualifyings, really strong races since.”
Pierre Gasly joins an exclusive list featuring only himself and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel as drivers who have won a race for Red Bull’s junior team.
The 24-year-old thinks his strong results should be met with a reward going forward.
“We’ll see what happens but I think there have been many, many strong drivers in Toro Rosso,” he said. “I’m really happy to be one of the two that have managed to get a win for this team.
“Obviously I guess the strong results should be rewarded with something but we will see what happens.
“At the moment it’s not something I really want to think about. I just want to enjoy this moment, because it’s my first win in F1 and I will have time to think about this later.”
