Red Bull has decided to pull-off Pierre Gasly from their Formula 1 seat.
The team has decided to send Gasly back to its parent team Toro Rosso. He will be replaced by Alex Albon of Toro Rosso after the summer break at Belgian Grand Prix.
Gasly was taken on board after a surprising decision by Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian driver decided not to renew his contract with Red Bull rather he preferred to switch to Renault.
Unfortunately, Gasly has been unable to live up to teams expectation and struggled to catch up to Max Verstappen performance. The team has decided to swap him with a driver from Toro Rosso.
Red Bull had previously asserted and claimed to have Gasly’s on board for the complete season of 2019.
But Anglo-Thai racer Albon performance at Toro Rosso during his debut season in Formula 1 surpassed the expectations.
The decision to switch Gasly for Albon is being seen as an opportunity, for Red Bull team, to evaluate him for full time driver and a companion to Max Verstappen next season of 2020.
“Red Bull are in the unique position of having four talented Formula 1 drivers under contract who can be rotated between the [main] team and Toro Rosso,” said a team statement.
“The team will use the next nine races to evaluate Alex’s performance in order to make an informed decision as to who will drive alongside Max in 2020.”
The move have been unexpected as Daniil Kvyat was speculated to be a replacement of Gasly in case Red Bull decided to drop him. Kvyat was favorite to move from Toro Rosso to Red Bull in future.
Kvyat had remained a part of Red Bull before he joined Toro Rosso three years ago during the season. He was relegated to make space for Max Verstappen. Still the team decided to opt for Albon who couldn’t outperform Kvyat.
Kvyat managed to find a place at podium for Toro Rosso this season after 2008 at German Grand Prix. He also outsocred Albon by 11 points.
While Verstappen performance this season has brought him to a position where Mercedes Boss Toto Wolff had to admit him as a title contender. He won two races for the Red Bull at German and Austrian Gran Prix.
However, Gasly was unable to raise the bar for himself let alone Verstappen. He couldn’t finish in top three this season and has been only able to score 118 points with sixth place on drivers standing.
