Formula 1: Who would replace Pierre Gasly at Red Bull Racing in 2019?

If Red Bull Racing end up cutting ties with Pierre Gasly before the 2019 Formula 1 season comes to an end, who would replace him?

Pierre Gasly has only driven for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing in two Formula 1 races, the first two races of the young 21-race 2019 Formula 1 season, since being confirmed as the replacement for Daniel Ricciardo last August.

However, his performances in these two races have landed him on the hot seat already, and this hot seat is one that may get very well get hotter well before silly season even truly starts to heat up.

There are already rumors that the 23-year-old Frenchman will be replaced not only for the 2020 season but for part of the 2019 season, and these rumors suggest that he could be cut by the Milton Keynes-based team in the very near future if he does not step up his performance.

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Red Bull Racing, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsports and Scuderia Ferrari have combined to win each of the 120 Formula 1 races that have taken place since Kimi Raikkonen won the 2013 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, driving for Lotus more than six years ago.

These three teams are still by far the top three teams in Formula 1, and they have all finished in the top three in the constructor standings in each of the last three seasons. Their drivers have all finished in the top six in the driver standings in each of the last three seasons as well.

As a result, it is pretty much expected that the six Red Bull Racing, Mercedes and Ferrari drivers will finish each race in the top six, assuming that nothing goes wrong with their cars.

Five of these six drivers have started and finished both of the season’s first two races in not only the top six but the top five. The one who hasn’t is Gasly, and he has not yet even cracked the top seven. He is also the only one of these six drivers who is not currently in the top five in the driver standings, as he sits down in 10th place.

Gasly qualified in 17th place for the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, and he finished this race in 11th before going on to qualify in 13th for the season’s second race, the Bahrain Grand Prix, and finish it in eighth.

This level of performance from a driver simply cannot continue at a top-tier team for much longer. Assuming Red Bull Racing do not let it continue and they promote another driver to be the new teammate to Max Verstappen, who would the 21-year-old Dutchman’s new teammate be?

The two primary candidates are most definitely Scuderia Toro Rosso drivers Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon, a rookie.

Kvyat makes more sense here given his experience in Formula 1, as he has competed in 74 races over the course of his career in the sport. Additionally, the 24-year-old Russian has made all 74 of his starts for either Red Bull Racing or Toro Rosso, the Red Bull Racing junior team.

But depending on how you look at it, his experience may not play to his advantage in this particular situation. If Red Bull Racing promote Kvyat as Gasly’s replacement, Kvyat’s journey since the 2013 Formula 1 season would get even wilder than it already has been.

Kvyat spent the 2013 season as a Toro Rosso test driver before being becoming one of their full-time drivers in the 2014 season. He was then promoted to Red Bull Racing as a full-time driver for the 2015 season. But four races into the 2016 season, he was demoted back to Toro Rosso and replaced by Verstappen.

He spent the rest of the 2016 season and the first 14 races of the 2017 season driving for Toro Rosso before being replaced by Gasly. Kvyat drove in one of the 20-race 2017 season’s final six races simply because Gasly was unable to compete due to a prior racing commitment. In the 2018 season, he served as a Ferrari development driver before he signed with Toro Rosso again for the 2019 season.

To keep up with the “anything goes” theme of Kvyat’s Formula 1 career, I guess it would technically only make sense for him to find himself becoming a teammate to the driver who replaced him at Red Bull Racing from Toro Rosso while simultaneously replacing the driver at Red Bull Racing who replaced him at Toro Rosso.

Albon, meanwhile, has competed in only the first two races of the 2019 season, and he has done a solid job. After finishing in 14th place in the season opener, he finished in ninth in the season’s second race, and the two points that he earned as a result of this ninth place finish have him in an 11th place tie in the driver standings, which is two positions ahead of Kvyat in a 13th place tie.

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If Red Bull Racing end up letting go of Pierre Gasly before the 2019 Formula 1 season ends, expect Daniil Kvyat to be his replacement due to his experience in the sport, but don’t be surprised if rookie Alexander Albon gets the nod given the fact that Kvyat’s experience in the sport isn’t exactly all positive experience for himself or for Red Bull Racing.

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