Horner: Red Bull still believes in Gasly
Red Bull "still believes" in Pierre Gasly.
That is the claim of Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner, even though the team demoted the French driver earlier in 2019.
But Horner says Gasly accepted the Toro Rosso demotion with the right attitude, and it paid off when he finished a sensational second in Brazil.
"Pierre had two options," Horner is quoted by Speed Week.
"Either he could let his head drop, or he could be grateful that he is still in Formula 1 and regard the rest of the season as an opportunity. Because Red Bull still believes in him.
"If we thought he was just not the right person for Red Bull, we would have let him out of the contract in the summer.
"But we continue to believe in his talent, which is why he's still in our driver pool."
Horner said Gasly's surging form since he left Red Bull's top team vindicated the decision to demote him in favour of rookie Alexander Albon.
"I think the new chapter with Toro Rosso was a relief to him in a way," he said.
"He came to us with two accidents in the winter tests - clearly the expectations were high. It wasn't easy for him.
"Some races really didn't work out for him, and then you guys (the media) had an effect as well. The pressure got higher and higher, and we just thought it was time to take that pressure off.
"It's nice to see him return to his true abilities at Toro Rosso. You can see that he's driving more freely," Horner added.
Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost agrees, telling France's Auto Hebdo that Gasly settled back in almost immediately after the Red Bull ousting.
"He immediately felt comfortable in our team," he said. "We have known each other for a long time, the engineers know him - it helped a lot.
"Additionally, our car is now easier to drive than the Red Bull, and Honda made progress in terms of fuel consumption.
"Our results are constantly improving," Tost added.
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Red Bull, Horner, Marko got a lot of criticism and crap for their decision to promote Albon, demote Gasly and keep Kvyat where he was. I've read the most ridiculous opinions and insults from, let's call them, "fans".
It was a really tough call they made and as we can see now, they have totally nailed it. Albon is doing quite well, both in results and the way he handles the pressure. He is putting in results, uses his elbows when he needs to, drives on the limit and sometimes a bit over it. Exactly what you need to do when you drive in a top team. Gasly has been demoted and has resurrected in the second half of the season. He didn't mentally collapse or jump off a building, he got back into a known environment, felt comfortable and drove his socks off. Kvyat, the favorite of many (including myself) to replace Gasly, has been driving worse than Gasly and has been playing torpedo vs Kimi and Hulkenberg in back-top back races. He has shown to be a worse choice for Red Bull of the 4 drivers they have available.
So all of you that thought this decision was bad and you flamed Red Bull, Horner and Marko, now it is time to take a step back, admit you were wrong and they were right and congratulate Red Bull for making such a difficult decision and utterly nailing it. It is why they are there in Red Bull managing and you are behind your monitor reading and writing about F1.
Very balanced assessment.
One thing that is missing, that was my sole complaint all along - Marko and Horner have zero "people skills."
There was, and there is no need for them to constantly go public with their dirty laundry about their drivers. Nobody benefits from that and the drivers do get hurt by all this badmouthing. Other than that it's their shop and their right to promote and demote drivers as they see fit.
Simon, both you and Gabe have posted excellent assessments and I, for one, applaud both of you. But, I still don't like RB. They are a whiney, snarky lot...all of them with the exception of VER's dad, Jos, who is, in addition, a convicted abuser. IMO, s sorry group of people.
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