Formula 1: Is it time for Red Bull Racing to demote Pierre Gasly to Toro Rosso?

Despite the fact that the 2019 Formula 1 season has just reached its halfway point, is it time for Red Bull Racing to demote Pierre Gasly to Toro Rosso?

Since his underwhelming debut driving for Aston Martin Red Bull Racing to open up the 2019 Formula 1 season in the Australian Grand Prix, Pierre Gasly has found himself on the hot seat.

The first season for the 23-year-old Frenchman driving for the Milton Keynes-based team has not featured many positives, and as a result, he has been unable to work his way off of the hot seat.

Driving for Red Bull Racing, one of the top three teams in Formula 1 and one of the only three teams that have won any of the last 129 races, top six finishes are expected.

These other two teams are Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and Scuderia Ferrari. Through the first 11 races of the 21-race 2019 season, both Mercedes drivers have recorded 10 top five finishes while both Ferrari drivers have recorded nine. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen has not finished a single race outside of the top five.

Gasly, meanwhile, has recorded just four top six finishes, and none of them have involved him actually beating any of these other five drivers on raw pace.

He did finish in fifth place in the Monaco Grand Prix, but that was because Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed. He then tied his career-high finish with a fourth place effort in the British Grand Prix, but that was largely due to the fact that Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel slammed into the back of Verstappen. Verstappen could only recover to finish in fifth while Vettel finished in 16th.

He recorded his two sixth place finishes in the Chinese Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix.

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Coming off his fourth place finish in the British Grand Prix, Gasly qualified in a career-high fourth for this past Sunday’s German Grand Prix. While he accomplished this since both Ferrari drivers were sidelined with mechanical issues, his pace was not that far off from putting himself on the front row, which was quite impressive considering the fact that he wrecked in practice for the race.

But the rain-shortened 64-lap race around the 16-turn, 2.842-mile (4.574-kilometer) Hockenheimring road course in Am Motodrom, Hockenheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany itself proved to be disastrous for Gasly.

The typical running order for a Formula 1 race was shuffled due to the changing race conditions. At one point, SportPesa Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was the legitimate leader.

Several notable drivers struggled in this race due to the conditions. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were the two most prominent drivers who wrecked out.

But unlike Gasly, none of them ran into the back of their teammates (or in Gasly’s case, pseudo teammates) to cause their retirements.

While Verstappen had checked out in the lead of the race, which he had done several times previously but been brought back to the pack via safety car periods, Gasly was in a battle for sixth place with Scuderia Toro Rosso rookie Alexander Albon. Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was also ahead of Gasly in second before he was passed by Vettel.

On lap 62, Gasly ran into the back of Albon. Albon stayed in the race and ultimately finished in sixth place, but Gasly was out and officially scored in 14th.

With Toro Rosso effectively being the Red Bull Racing junior team, this is the last thing Gasly needed to add to a season that has already been riddled with underperformance from day one.

When Kvyat was driving for Red Bull Racing and caused a collision in the 2016 Russian Grand Prix with Vettel, Vettel slid into Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo. Seconds later, Kvyat flat-out drove into Vettel, a former Red Bull Racing driver himself, and wrecked him.

Kvyat has not driven for Red Bull Racing ever since, as he was replaced by Verstappen the following race. The 21-year-old Dutchman has not left the team since.

Kvyat was replaced despite the fact that he had just recorded a podium finish in the Chinese Grand Prix as well as the fact that he finished ahead of Ricciardo in the standings in the 2015 season, his first season driving for the team.

Gasly, meanwhile, has come nowhere close to even being close to Verstappen’s level this season. Verstappen has won two races and sits in third place in the driver standings with 162 points and no finishes below fifth place while Gasly barely sits in sixth in the standings with 55 points and just two top five finishes.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr., the “best of the rest” driver, trails Gasly by only seven points in seventh place in the driver standings with 48 points. Meanwhile, fifth place Leclerc has scored 120 points and sits 65 points ahead of Gasly.

Fortunately for Pierre Gasly, he didn’t actually take Alexander Albon out, but the fact that he did what he did coupled with the lack of success that he has had in a car that is capable of achieving far better results does not bode well for his Formula 1 future with Red Bull Racing.

It is time for Red Bull Racing to demote him to Toro Rosso, where he spent the end of the 2017 season and the entire 2018 season, and to promote either Daniil Kvyat or Albon, preferably Kvyat given his additional experience in the sport.

There is no doubt that Gasly has talent, especially given the solid season he had driving for Toro Rosso last year, but he was clearly rushed up from the Faenza-based team, and the quicker he can get back there to develop, the better it will be for the prospect of his future and the better it will be for Red Bull Racing’s prospect of getting better results from their number two driver.