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AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly has said he feels he is ready to return to Red Bull after his shock victory during Sunday's Italian Grand Prix.
Gasly managed to take an unlikely win after a penalty for Lewis Hamilton during the brief red flag period to hand the Alpha Tauri the lead, which he held onto to take the win from McLaren's Carlos Sainz by just four-tenths of a second.
Gasly had originally been promoted to partner Max Verstappen at the Red Bull team in 2019, but a string of poor performances in the first half of the season saw Gasly demoted back to Toro Rosso in the lead up to the Belgian Grand Prix in favour of rookie Alex Albon.
Since Gasly's return to the Red Bull junior team, he has scored a second-place podium at last year's race in Brazil, before taking the team's second-ever victory at Monza on Sunday, twelve years after Sebastian Vettel's win with the team in 2008.
Speaking to the media after the race, Gasly believed he felt ready should he be able to make a return to the top team, but admitted it was not his decision to make.
"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 with 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."
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
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Replies (7)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
maybe, but will he be competitive there? that car seem to be wholly adapted for Max, and anyone else will struggle with it. Hell, even Max don't seem wholly pleased, although that's down to balans.
Snooky
Posts: 121
Think you’re right, he’s stuck at AT until a different team becomes available while max is at RBR. That car is so difficult to drive from what the team are saying, makes a decent driver look bad, fair play to max for getting what he has out of it
f1ski
Posts: 726
I am sure he is ready. He should stay here.the car is raceable in a wider spectrum of conditions. The rbr organization imo isn’t beyond supporting the second team.
Would he go to Ferrari for the balance of the year. No I don’t think so. He is showcasing his race craft and speed.
JuJuHound
Posts: 352
Albon is strugglin but in my opinion Gasly's great pace this year shows how bad is to keep Kvyat in the team. I think they should take Tsunoda instead for 2021.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
that is what they want, they are just waiting to see how Tsunoda ranks compared to his rivals.
Pistonhead
Posts: 556
Think he should stay where he is and prove over a season his value/consistency and with that will come confidence. He's done great since going back. I do hope they will let Albon have the time to shine in what's left of this seasons though, he's had some bad luck and is showing some tenacity, I think it would really destroy him to be dropped at half-time.
Kean
Posts: 692
I think two things has happened at Red Bull that explains Gasly's and Albon's struggles. 1) Newey has taken their aerodynamic concept as far as they can go, as I understand it their high rake coupled with a front suspesion set up makes that car incredibly difficult to drive and has a very narrow window of operation. 2) The car is completely built to suit Max.
I don't think it would be the right move for Gasly to go back to Red Bull, likely he'll perform similar to Albon. Also going up against Max, the driver I personally rate as the best driver right now, isn't perhaps the wisest thing to do. Had the new regs come into play next year, then it would be a different story, because it would be a different car, but for now I think all drivers execpt Max should stay away from it.