Formula 1: Pierre Gasly needs a second season at Toro Rosso

Pierre Gasly needs a second season at Toro Rosso, as his first Formula 1 season driving for Red Bull Racing has been nothing shy of a disaster.

After the Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo announced his impending unexpected departure from Aston Martin Red Bull Racing last August, Pierre Gasly became the favorite to replace the 30-year-old Australian as the teammate to Max Verstappen in the 2019 Formula 1 season.

About two and a half weeks later, the 23-year-old Frenchman was confirmed as the new teammate for the 21-year-old Dutchman.

But the first nine races of the 21-race 2019 season have been a disaster for Gasly. Pretty much since the season began, he has been on the hot seat. Rumors about him being replaced by the Milton Keynes-based team circulated pertaining to not only the 2020 season but to the end of the 2019 season.

These rumors have not slowed down, and justifiably not.

As one of the six Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, Gasly is expected to finish each race in the top six.

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These three teams have finished in the top three in the constructor standings in each of the last three seasons, and they are poised to make it four consecutive seasons this year, and their six drivers have finished in the top six in the driver standings in each of the last three seasons as well.

Through nine races so far this season, Gasly has recorded just three top six finishes. He does sit in sixth place in the driver standings, but with only 43 points, he trails fifth place Charles Leclerc of Ferrari by a whopping 62 points (105 to 43). He is also nowhere near teammate Max Verstappen, a race winner already this year, up in third with 126 points.

It’s like the top five drivers, not the top six, are in their own league, and Gasly himself is in the “best of the rest” battle. Seventh place Carlos Sainz Jr. of McLaren only trails him by 13 points (43 to 30).

In fact, when Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton finished in a season-low fifth place, which was also his lowest finish in the last 21 races, in the Austrian Grand Prix last Sunday, without even thinking, I stated that he was the “worst of the best”, meaning he was the lowest finisher of the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing drivers.

Then I remembered — no, Gasly actually finished in seventh place, somewhere in a completely different time zone, and was, once again, the “worst of the best”, a title he has only not held in one race so far this season, the Monaco Grand Prix, and he hold did not hold this title in this race only because of the fact that Leclerc crashed.

With all things considered, Gasly probably won’t last at Red Bull Racing beyond the conclusion of the 2019 season, if he even lasts there that long. But this doesn’t mean at all they should be done with him altogether.

Gasly was rushed to Red Bull Racing, and that’s a major reason why he has struggled so far in 2019. It’s that simple.

They had no plans of getting rid of Ricciardo, but when Ricciardo unexpectedly made the decision to leave for Renault, they tabbed the better of the two drivers on the Red Bull Racing junior team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, to be his replacement, and Gasly happened to be that driver.

So what is the solution?

Gasly needs at least a second season at Toro Rosso. By “at least”, I mean it may be better to demote him back to the team before the 2019 season ends as opposed to waiting until after the 2019 season ends.

But this is the furthest thing from a knock on Red Bull Racing for bringing him up too fast; it was a bit challenging to judge that he was rushed to the team and to predict that it would result in such a struggle this season.

Gasly drove for Toro Rosso full-time as a rookie last season after driving in the first five races of his career for the team at the end of the 2017 season. As stated above, he was the better of Toro Rosso’s two drivers last season, and his rookie season was rather impressive.

He outscored teammate Brendon Hartley 29 to 4 in what was arguably the most lopsided teammate battle in the field, and he recorded a career-high fourth place finish in the season’s second race, the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was Honda’s best finish in Formula 1 since the 2008 British Grand Prix at the time. He looked to be ready to hold his own at Red Bull Racing against Verstappen.

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Hopefully, for Red Bull Racing’s sake and for Pierre Gasly’s, they are willing to demote him to Toro Rosso but consider giving him another chance at Red Bull Racing after at least the 2020 Formula 1 season as opposed to dumping him altogether. He is loaded with potential, but he needs to be brought up properly for that potential to have any chance of showing itself as true talent, and at this point, this appears to be the best option.

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