F1 News

Daniil Kvyat vs Pierre Gasly: The end of the Frenchman's career?

12 August 2019 at 12:41
  • Bevan Youl

After Red Bull made the decision to promote Alexander Albon from Toro Rosso and swap with Pierre Gasly it may bring up an interesting second half of the season for the Frenchman and Daniil Kvyat.

Kvyat has been in Gasly’s shoes before. The Russian raced for Toro Rosso in 2013 & 14 before being bumped up to a Red Bull seat alongside Daniel Ricciardo after Sebasitan Vettel moved to Ferrari.
 
He spent one and a bit seasons there, finishing seventh in the drivers championship in 2015 before a run of errors led the team to replace him with Max Verstappen before Spain 2016.
 
Kvyat was kept on at Toro Rosso until late into 2017 but the results never came with nine retirements and only six points finishes before being dropped.
 
Could this happen to Gasly? The French failed to score a podium with Red Bull, while Verstappen took two wins and a pole positions towards the end of the summer break in the same car.
 
Perhaps the pressure was a bit too much. Kvyat in his return to the grid has been very impressive. He took advantage of what went on in Germany to finish third for Toro Rosso and is ninth in the drivers standings, only 36 points behind Gasly.
 
Red Bull have said that the next nine races are to be used to assess how Albon performs for them before they make their decision on who will partner Verstappen in 2020.
 
No doubt Kvyat will be wanting to keep his consistency up and he will definitely be in with a chance of the seat. If Gsaly can keep his head straight and get the results  then maybe, just maybe he could see himself back in the Red Bull.
 
But it could easily swing the other way as it did for Kvyat a couple of years ago…
 
Who do you think will have a better second half of the season?