Pierre Gasly endured his F1 career’s biggest setback when Red Bull decided to part ways with the Frenchman after just one season of association. The then 22-year-old experienced a major downfall in his morale after a mid-season demotion saw him go back to driving for Toro Rosso. However, former F1 team boss Franz Tost believes it was a crucial lesson for Gasly, given he showed immediate improvements after coming back to Scuderia AlphaTauri, as he explained in the documentary ‘Whatever It Takes,’ uploaded on YouTube by Visa Cash App RB F1 Team.
“Fortunately, Red Bull decided to bring him back to us (Toro Rosso).”
“And then, we went to Spa, and he felt well in the car, everything was fine, he knew the team, he knew his engineer. And then he scored immediate points. From then onwards, it went better and better.”
Driving for Toro Rosso in the 2017-18 season alongside Brendon Hartley, Gasly showed a lot of promise as an up-and-coming driver on the grid. After securing 29 points in his debut season with the team, Red Bull decided to give him a promotion and brought him in to partner Max Verstappen following the exit of Daniel Ricciardo from the team.
However, the promising French driver could never become one with the car, facing one problem after another. He was often off-pace in the car, with Verstappen even lapping him once. After putting together a string of poor performances, Red Bull decided it was better for them to send Gasly back to Toro Rosso and look for another driver to partner Verstappen.
Much of what happened was not Gasly’s fault. He was still relatively new in the sport and was driving a car Franz Tost believes he wasn’t ready to drive. Furthermore, Verstappen has a history of ‘killing’ his teammates with his incredible performances, and a young Gasly just became an unfortunate victim of the same. After spending three more seasons with the team, Gasly decided it was time for him to make a switch and joined Alpine in 2023.
Pierre Gasly was a victim of the Verstappen family’s ‘tradition’
Max Verstappen has become increasingly famous for tearing his teammates apart and almost completely killing his teammates’ hopes. While many believe the killer instinct stems from his father’s teachings, it actually came from Michael Schumacher‘s dominance over Jos Verstappen back in the day. Jos Verstappen drove in Benetton alongside Schumacher as a substitute for an injured JJ Lehto and would usually be well off-pace from his teammate.
Max Verstappen’s team boss at Toro Rosso, Graham Watson, believes his father’s learnings imprinted on him, leading the young Dutchman to become as dominant as he is. “It has to be your team. You have to be the man around whom it revolves. I’m convinced you now see this with Max: first, beat your teammate, then win the title.”
Sergio Perez stands as the latest victim to suffer the consequences of being a teammate to Verstappen, given what went down in 2023. Should the Mexican continue to pale in comparison to the Dutchman, it would hardly be a surprise to see him vacate the seat for someone else.
