In 2019, Pierre Gasly was promoted to the Red Bull team to partner Max Verstappen. Unfortunately, his maiden foray in a top team was a disaster. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko was also of the opinion that the Frenchman’s approach was a “complete failure”.

When Daniel Ricciardo left to join Renault, he left big shoes to fill at Red Bull. Sadly, Gasly was unable to fill them and was unable to keep pace with Verstappen.

Admittedly, Pierre Gasly pulled up his socks for the British Grand Prix, with a fourth-place finish. The bad news was that it proved to be a one-off and the team had had enough.

“It seems to me that Pierre should take some of the blame,” Marko told GrandPrix247. “He came to Red Bull and saw only one goal in front of him – Verstappen, no one else.”

“If he had accepted from the very beginning that Max is still faster and tried to gradually get close to him – but he tried to change his style, tried to reduce the gap in other ways, change something, try to attack harder and this led to complete failure.”

How was life for Pierre Gasly after Red Bull?

However, when he returned to Toro Rosso, the Atlantean effort was off his shoulders. So, he could regain his mojo at his own leisure, without unnecessary pressure. Redemption soon came in the form of a fine second place in Brazil after winning a drag race against Lewis Hamilton.

Marko observed that Pierre Gasly improved from a psychological point of view. However, fellow Red Bull reject, Daniil Kvyat was ‘completely broken’.

The Austrian denied that Gasly was ‘demoted’ to Toro Rosso.  He said that the Frenchman still occupies a highly coveted seat. Meanwhile, Marko believes that Kvyat needs to add consistency, though he had a strong showing in the season finale at Abu Dhabi.