Daniel Ricciardo Did Not Expect Pierre Gasly to Beat Max Verstappen

Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo knew that the man who replaced him at Red Bull, Pierre Gasly would not beat Max Verstappen in his first season. However, he confessed that he was “surprised” by the gap between the two.

Sadly for the Frenchman, his brief stint at Red Bull Racing has now ended, with Alex Albon taking his place. To make matters even more humiliating, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Frenchman was lapped by team-mate Verstappen.

Evidently Red Bull had had enough and promptly demoted Gasly to Toro Rosso. The move was a direct contradiction to the several promises that Gasly’s seat was safe. However, it was not at all surprising, given that the 23-year-old had struggled to match Verstappen in their 12 races together.

So far, Max Verstappen has racked up five podiums including two grand prix wins, and 181 points. Meanwhile, Gasly’s best finish was a P4 and he has scored just 63 points, more than half of Verstappen’s tally.

Admittedly, Daniel Ricciardo revealed that he was surprised by Gasly’s lack of performance.

Speaking to Crash.net, Ricciardo said, “Tough one with him because the reality is he is a long way off Max.”

“So on one side they [Red Bull] are happy with Max but on the other hand I think deep down they know that they could be scoring a lot more points.

“I don’t know what it is at the moment with Pierre because last year he got some big results with Toro Rosso, which was clearly not as good a car as the Red Bull.

“So a tough one. I know Max as a team-mate and I didn’t expect Pierre to come out and beat him. I’m not surprised that Max is beating him, but I am surprised at the gap.”