Formula 1: Will Pierre Gasly win his first career race in 2019?

With Pierre Gasly set to replace Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull Racing in the 2019 Formula 1 season, will the 22-year-old win his first career Formula 1 race?

It was announced on Monday that 22-year-old Pierre Gasly will be leaving Scuderia Toro Rosso, the Red Bull Racing junior team, following the conclusion of the 2018 Formula 1 season to replace Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull Racing as a teammate to Max Verstappen beginning next year.

Ricciardo, 29, unexpectedly signed a two-year contract at the beginning of August to drive for Renault Sport starting in the 2019 season as the replacement for Carlos Sainz Jr., who has since signed a multi-year contract with McLaren as the replacement for retiring two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso.

With Gasly, who is in his second season and his first full season driving in Formula 1 and for Toro Rosso, set to take a huge step up from one of the three worst teams in the sport to one of the three top-tier teams in the sport, is he poised to win his first career Formula 1 race next year?

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Red Bull Racing currently sit in third place in the constructor standings, and they are the only Formula 1 team that have had both of their drivers win at least one race so far this season. In fact, both of their drivers have won at least one race for the team in each of the last three seasons, so it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine Gasly becoming victorious in 2019.

While the jump from Toro Rosso to Red Bull Racing might mean that Gasly will need some time to adapt to driving for a much better team than he has been driving for, it may very well mean he will be a contender for race wins right away. Just look at Verstappen. In his first career race for Red Bull Racing, the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix, he was victorious. At just 20 years old, he has earned four victories driving for the team already. No other Formula 1 drivers have earned even one victory by their 21st birthdays.

Red Bull Racing are set to switch from Renault engines to Honda engines starting next year after signing a two-year contract to do so back in June, thus ending their 12-year partnership with Renault.

However, while many people have criticized this move, it might actually play to Red Bull Racing’s advantage given how unreliable their Renault engines have been through the first 12 races of this season. But even more so, it might play to Gasly’s advantage.

Gasly drove in five of the final six races of the 2017 season for Toro Rosso last season as the replacement for Daniil Kvyat before signing with the team to drive full-time this year. Between the 2017 season and the 2018 season, Toro Rosso switched from Renault engines to Honda engines, which allowed McLaren, the team that spent each of the three seasons from 2015 to 2017 using Honda engines, to make their much desired switch to Renault engines.

In the three-year span during which McLaren used Honda engines, none of their drivers finished any race in the top four. But in the second race of this season, the Bahrain Grand Prix, Gasly finished in fourth place.

Since then, Gasly has added two more top seven finishes, a seventh place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix and a sixth place finish in the Hungarian Grand Prix. He has outperformed teammate Brendon Hartley, who is also in his first full season driving for the team after driving for them in the final four races of last season, on a consistent basis. Gasly sits in 13th place in the driver standings with 26 points while Hartley sits in 19th with just two points.

Red Bull Racing could not have a selected a better driver to replace Ricciardo in what is set to be their first season using Honda engines. Gasly’s experience, successful experience at that, in his first 12 races driving a Honda-powered car for Toro Rosso could be the difference in him earning his first career Formula 1 victory next year in Red Bull Racing’s first season using Honda engines.

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Will Pierre Gasly win his first career Formula 1 race in the 2019 season? If so, will his first career victory be his only victory next season or will he earn multiple victories? The 2019 season is scheduled to begin with the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, March 17.

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