“We weren’t obliged to do so”: Red Bull chief reveals increase in $5 million salary for Pierre Gasly

Red Bull chief Helmut Marko revealed that Pierre Gasly’s salary was increased in spite of him not performing up to standards. 

Gasly has been in the Red Bull books throughout his F1 career. He made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso back in 2017 and impressed everyone in his first two seasons for the outfit.

Red Bull thought he was good enough to drive for them and chose him as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement in 2019. However, his stint alongside Max Verstappen turned out to be a nightmare. He struggled immensely to keep up with the Dutchman and made several mistakes that cost his team big points.

As a result, Red Bull demoted him back to the Toro Rosso seat midway through that year, and he’s been with them ever since. Despite that, he has been a Red Bull academy driver and is still contracted to the team.

There have been talks about him returning to Red Bull, particularly because of his strong performances for AlphaTauri (formerly Toro Rosso). However, with Sergio Perez’s contract extension, it seems likely that he will turn elsewhere to sort out his F1 future.

Also read: Pierre Gasly thinks “It’s still early” to leave $5 Million AlphaTauri role and consider future options

Red Bull increased Pierre Gasly’s salary in spite of not liking his performances

Gasly had a very strong 2021 season which led to a lot of speculation about his future. AlphaTauri themselves had a car that was capable of fighting for points in every single race. That has not been the cast this campaign and it seems that the regulation changes have hit them hard.

The French driver has not been able to repeat his heroics of 2020 and 2021. This may be due to the fact that he is not in a very competitive car right now, but Red Bull decided to increase his salary anyway. The 26-year-old reportedly earns salary of $5 million from Red Bull.

“In the race, things are not going as well,” Helmut Marko said to Motorsport. “Nevertheless, we improved Gasly’s contract financially. Even though we weren’t obliged to do so.”

On top of that, Marko also feels that Gasly teammate Yuki Tsunoda is now on the same level as him. The Japanese driver is P16 in the Drivers’ Championship standings with 11 points to his name, whereas Gasly is P13, five points ahead.

Also read: Belgian GP 2022 Weather Forecast: How is the weather at Spa-Francorchamps ahead of Belgian Grand Prix