Gasly: Red Bull "frustrating" but Alpha Tauri contract "completely deserved"
F1 News
Pierre Gasly says that he "completely deserves" his seat at the soon to be renamed Alpha Tauri team for 2020, despite his extremely disappointing spell at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing in the first half of 2019. At the time of his drop to Toro Rosso, Gasly has just over a third of the points gained by teammate Max Verstappen.
Gasly's replacement, Alex Albon, was much more consistent and seemingly more comfortable with the car as he picked up regular points, almost claiming a podium in Brazil.
And as luck would have it, the man who benefitted from Albon's incident with Lewis Hamilton was Gasly, who took his debut podium place with a P2.
The Frenchman told Formule 1 that he was aware Verstappen would be a challenging teammate, saying: “I’ve known Max since our time in karting. I know how fast he is on a single lap and in the races. He performed very well during those first twelve races, at the level I expected of him.”
Gasly revealed how frustrating it was to be off the pace for the first time in his career, but said he has still earnt his 2020 seat: “For the past seven years I have always been super competitive, except for those six months at Red Bull. That’s why it’s a bit frustrating that we were not able to make the changes that were needed.
“Based on the results I have achieved with Toro Rosso since Spa, I think the seat is completely deserved.”