AlphaTauri driver Daniil Kvyat opened up on his teammate’s struggles at Red Bull. The Russian admitted that he was “surprised” to see Pierre Gasly underperform while driving for the Milton-Keynes outfit. However, Kvyat admitted that he didn’t know Gasly well enough to pass quick judgment on his poor form.
Kvyat opens up on Gasly’s average Red Bull stint
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In many aspects, Kvyat and Gasly share a similar career trajectory. In Kvyat’s case, he spent very little time at Red Bull’s sister team before getting the call up to Red Bull. It looked like the Russian was Red Bull’s next star but everything went downhill after a few bad racing moments. Red Bull demoted him back to the team that gave him his F1 start. Ultimately, Toro Rosso also dropped the Russian before re-signing him for 2019. Kvyat had come full circle on his F1 return with Torro Rosso last year.
Gasly, like Daniil, spent very little time at the junior team before Red Bull promoted him. It looked like Red Bull finally had the ideal pairing that it was missing for so long. Sadly, Gasly couldn’t cope with the pressure, failed to deliver and Red Bull had no choice but to give him his walking papers. The Milton-Keynes outfit demoted the young Frenchman back to Torro Rosso in the second half of 2019.
To a certain degree, Kvyat knows exactly how Gasly feels. The cycle of promotion and demotion can get to one’s head in the cutthroat world of F1. However, the Russian admitted that Gasly’s drop in form was confusing. Speaking to F1’s Beyond the Grid Podcast, Kvyat said:
“Pierre is very quick for sure but I still didn’t understand him very well as a driver”
“I haven’t seen the full picture but for sure, a very quick guy on one lap and very comfortable”
“For sure I expect him to stay very fast when we start again”
“I was just quite surprised that he didn’t manage to deliver the same performance in Red Bull Racing, that is what I mean by full picture”
“It was a bit surprising for me”
Despite all the events that occurred in Torro Rosso, Kvyat and Gasly can start the 2020 season on a fresh note with a brand new team in AlphaTauri.
