Happy Working with Toro Rosso Again: Pierre Gasly Opens up on Red Bull Demotion

Published 08/28/2019, 12:28 PM EDT

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via Imago

There is a saying that goes, “when you’ve hit rock bottom, the only place left to go is up”. The recently demoted Pierre Gasly seems to be following this motto, as he is not too beaten up about losing his Red Bull seat.

Instead, the Frenchman has admitted that he is happy to work with Toro Rosso once more. During the summer break, Red Bull opted to swap out Gasly for Alexander Albon. The decision came in the wake of a trying first half of the season for the Frenchman, who was fresh out of Toro Rosso.

Unfortunately, Pierre Gasly found out the hard way, what it was like to be pitted against a driver of Max Verstappen’s calibre. The young French driver often found himself stuck in midfield battles which his teammate was at the sharp end.

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Now, the Red Bull team have elected to take a gamble on fielding Alexander Albon in a guinea pig role. Meanwhile Gasly returns to the sister team and has to prove his mettle all over again.

“The summer break is over and I am back with my Italian family for the rest of the season and I’m happy to be working with Toro Rosso again,” Gasly said.

“I’ve had a couple of weeks to rest and train to get ready for the nine upcoming races so I can give my best performance for the team. It was nice to have that time off to reflect on the first half of the season, but now I’m fully focussed on the rest of the season and ready to get going again.

“We have been busy with preparations for the rest of the season this week, I went to the factory to meet with my engineers and have my seat fit, trying to be as prepared as possible for the weekend.”

Pierre Gasly insists that he is not torn up about losing the Red Bull seat to Alexander Albon. Instead, he is firmly focused on delivering for Toro Rosso and hauling in the points for the constructors’ battle, as they fight to hang on to fifth in the championship.

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“It’s going to be great racing again after the break, especially on my favourite track of the season at Spa. It’s a track I really enjoy and have had great races there in the past.”

“I had my first win in single-seaters there in Formula 4 and I also won the Feature Race in GP2 back in 2016.”

“Now the main focus is on extracting the maximum of the car until the end of the season with Toro Rosso. I’ll do my best to bring as many points as I can for the team to help defend our position in the constructors’ championship.”

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Red Bull have openly said that their 2020 lineup is not fixed yet, so Albon’s promotion will determine who deserves the seat more. Red Bull are already aware of Daniil Kvyat’s potential and now know of Gasly’s pace in the car. So, once they analyse Albon’s performance, they will compare all three drivers and determine the best option out of the three.

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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