Ever since Max Verstappen arrived at Red Bull midway through the 2016 World Championship, several drivers have lost their seats at the Milton Keynes-based team in rapid fashion. The primary cause has consistently been the immense difficulty of matching the Dutchman’s level of competitiveness, coupled with the team’s unwavering support for their star driver. The first to experience this brutal rejection by the Anglo-Austrian outfit was Pierre Gasly, who was announced as a Red Bull driver for 2019 following Daniel Ricciardo’s shock decision to leave for Renault.
The Frenchman’s career path initially mirrored that of many other Red Bull protégés, starting with a debut at the sister team (currently known as Racing Bulls, but then Toro Rosso) followed by a swift promotion. Speaking to Off the Grid, Pierre Gasly recalled the moment he got the call:
“Right after Budapest, Daniel announced he was leaving. I remember arriving in Greece for the holidays and thinking ‘Wow, Daniel is leaving.’ Red Bull had Carlos Sainz as an option and they had me. It was between me and Sainz. The phone rang and Helmut Marko told me: ‘Ok, you will be a Red Bull Racing driver at the start of next year.’ It had only been six months since the start of my first full season in F1.”
A difficult chapter at Milton Keynes
However, Pierre Gasly’s tenure at Red Bull was short-lived. Following a disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix, the Frenchman was dropped for the second half of the season, sent back to Toro Rosso, and replaced by Alex Albon. Pierre Gasly left the senior team without having secured a single podium finish.
“I won’t lie, it was sad,” he continued, reflecting on the emotional toll of the demotion. “In 2019, my second year in Formula 1, I didn’t receive any support from anywhere, in a very large team that supports Max a lot—for good reasons, because he is the one they count on for results.”
Pierre Gasly also highlighted specific technical hurdles that hindered his integration into the team during that period. He explained how the lack of experience around him made a difficult situation even worse:
“I started with an engineer fresh from Formula E who had no F1 experience. So it was a strange dynamic. I wasn’t given the tools to give my best. I tried to fight in my own way because I wanted to—and ultimately, I’m there to do it—give my maximum. They weren’t happy, but neither was I, because I realized I couldn’t show my potential.”
While the 2019 season remains a “what if” in Pierre Gasly’s career, the French driver has since rebuilt his reputation as a race winner and a leader on the grid, proving that there is indeed life after the high-pressure environment of the Red Bull junior program.
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