ALEX ALBON TO RED BULL – GASLY DEMOTED

Silly season is in full motion now, and there were severe question marks over the future of Pierre Gasly at Red Bull Racing before the summer break. However, it has now been confirmed that he will be demoted back to Toro Rosso after the summer break, and is going to be replaced by Alexander Albon.

Red Bull issued this statement on their website:

“Alexander Albon is being promoted to the Team to drive alongside Max, while Pierre will return to the Red Bull sister team, Scuderia Toro Rosso.

“Red Bull are in the unique position of having four talented Formula One drivers under contract who can be rotated between the Team and Toro Rosso. 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.

“Everyone at the Team looks forward to welcoming Alex and supporting him during the next phase of his F1 career.” 

Gasly has had poor form in comparison to his teammate Max Verstappen, and whilst it would have been a harsh decision, Red Bull knew that they would have to make a change for 2 main reasons. Firstly, as they mentioned in their statement about Gasly’s demotion, they will need to assess which driver is the most suited in their view to be driving alongside Verstappen for the 2020 season. Gasly has over half the amount of points as Verstappen, and has often been unable to finish races inside the top 6, despite being in a top 3 car that should be challenging for podiums; whilst Albon has quietly impressed during his debut season and Daniil Kvyat has managed to obtain a podium at Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso – which was surely the final nail in the coffin for Gasly.

Secondly, Red Bull need a driver that can be up there and challenging for wins and podiums if Verstappen is going to be able to launch a title challenge to Mercedes in the second half of the season. Gasly has been nowhere near doing this, and has even been lapped by his teammate on multiple occasions during the race weekend. Clearly, the hierarchy at the team see Alex Albon capable of doing this, and that is why they have decided to promote him.

There will no doubt be some people questioning why Red Bull did not decide to promote Daniil Kvyat, who scored Toro Rosso’s second ever podium earlier in the season. I think this is because they already know what ability Kvyat has, but they also know that he can clash with teammates (see Carlos Sainz in 2017) as well as other top-level drivers (a.k.a Sebastian Vettel on multiple occasions). Albon has impressed as a rookie, and he has also been quite consistent throughout the season so far, so Red Bull could be doing this to see whether they think Kvyat or Albon is a better fit for the team, and number 1 driver Max Verstappen, in the long term. Potentially, Red Bull may have taken note from Ferrari, after they promoted Charles Leclerc, although he had not fully completed a season in F1 because he had impressed them and the president of the team – and we’ve seen what Leclerc has managed to do since.

What is your opinion on this? Do you think Red Bull have made the correct decision or should they have given Gasly a little bit more time?