Formula 1: Is Pierre Gasly at risk of finishing the season outside of the top 6?

No Red Bull Racing driver has finished outside of the top six in the driver standings since the 2015 Formula 1 season. Is Pierre Gasly at risk of changing that?

Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport have been the top team in Formula 1 since the V6 turbo hybrid era began in the 2014 season, and Scuderia Ferrari or Red Bull Racing have finished in second place in the constructor standings behind the Silver Arrows in every season of this era.

After Red Bull Racing finished in second place in the constructor standings ahead of Ferrari in fourth in the 2014 season and Ferrari finished in second ahead of Red Bull Racing in fourth in the 2015 season, both teams have finished in the top three in each of the three seasons since the 2016 season.

Additionally, since the 2015 season, the six Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing drivers have all finished in the top six in the driver standings.

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But is Red Bull Racing’s Pierre Gasly at risk of changing this?

Gasly replaced the Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo ahead of the 2019 season, and he has been on the hot seat pretty much since his lackluster performance in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Gasly opened up the season with qualifying efforts of 17th and 13th place in the Australian Grand Prix and the Bahrain Grand Prix, and he finished these two races in 11th and eighth, respectively, miring him in 10th in the driver standings.

But with his first sixth place finish of the season in the season’s third race, the Chinese Grand Prix, Gasly shot up to sixth in the driver standings. Even after he was forced to retire from the following race, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he was still in a sixth place tie in the standings — with an average finishing position of just 10.50 and only one finish of higher than eighth.

At this point, it appeared as though even if he struggled from time to time, he would be able to solidify himself in the top six in the driver standings as long as he put together a decent performance or two from time to time.

Indeed, Gasly has never fallen out of the top six in the driver standings since he finished in sixth place in the Chinese Grand Prix. But here we are eight races into the 21-race 2019 season, and he is still justifiably on the hot seat.

He has still not finished higher than any of the other five Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing drivers this season, excluding when Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was forced to retire from the Monaco Grand Prix. He now sits in sixth place in the driver standings with 37 points. Meanwhile, Leclerc sits in fifth in the standings, a whopping 50 points ahead of Gasly with 87.

Seventh place Carlos Sainz Jr. of McLaren trails Gasly by just 11 points for sixth in the driver standings, and he has recorded four top eight finishes, including two sixth place finishes, in the last five races after a three-race start to the season that featured two retirements, a 14th place finish and an average finishing position of 17.67.

Sainz Jr. could make a serious run at turning the unofficial “best of the rest” title into a top six finish in the driver standings as opposed to only a top seven finish, especially given his 7.60 finishing position over the course of the last five races.

However, with all things considered, this is still highly unlikely.

Despite his recent struggles, including his eighth place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix and his 10th place finish in the French Grand Prix, two races that were arguably his worst two races from start to finish all season long, Gasly is still in a great position to finish in the top six in the driver standings.

Finishing higher than sixth place likely won’t even come close to happening, but finishing in sixth is still the most likely scenario for the 23-year-old Frenchman.

All he really needs to do is finish in sixth place every once in a while, and he has shown with three top six finishes so far this season that he is capable of doing that, even in the midst of the struggles that landed him the hot seat before he even finished his first race driving for the Milton Keynes-based team to begin with.

The only way that Gasly will finish outside of the top six in this year’s driver standings is probably if Red Bull Racing decide to pull the plug early and replace him before the season concludes. Even then, he may have already done enough to lock up sixth place.

When the 2019 Formula 1 season concludes, will Pierre Gasly be inside the top six in the driver standings, or will he become the first Red Bull Racing driver to finish outside of the top six in the last four seasons?