Formula 1: Red Bull Racing will not replace Pierre Gasly in 2019

Red Bull Racing have confirmed that they will not replace Pierre Gasly before the 2019 Formula 1 season reaches its conclusion.

Pierre Gasly replaced the Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo at Aston Martin Red Bull Racing ahead of the 2019 Formula 1 season, but after an underwhelming debut at the Milton Keynes-based team in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, he found himself on the hot seat.

Now 12 of the 2019 season’s 21 races have been completed, and the 23-year-old Frenchman has failed to work his way off the hot seat, as his performances have simply been subpar, especially compared to those of teammate Max Verstappen, who is currently in a battle for second place in the driver standings with two victories and no finishes outside of the top five.

Driving for Red Bull Racing, drivers are expected to finish races in the top six along with their teammate and the four Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport and Scuderia Ferrari drivers. These three teams have combined to win the last 130 races going back to early in the 2013 season.

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Gasly currently sits in sixth place in the driver standings. But how he has gotten there has not been pretty, and with 63 points, he sits just five points ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. in seventh with 58. Meanwhile, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc sits in fifth place with 132 points, which is more than twice as many points as Gasly has earned this year.

Through the first 12 races of the 2019 season, Gasly has recorded only five top six finishes, and he has only recorded two finishes of better than sixth place. But in neither of the two races in which he earned these two top five finishes did he truly beat another Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull Racing driver.

Gasly finished in fifth place in the Monaco Grand Prix, but Leclerc crashed. He finished in a career-high fourth in the British Grand Prix, but only after Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel crashed into Verstappen in a battle for third.

Gasly did finish ahead of Leclerc and Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas in the German Grand Prix, but only because they crashed before he did. Gasly was officially scored in 14th place after crashing late.

In the Hungarian Grand Prix, Gasly finished in sixth place behind Sainz Jr. in fifth, but he did beat Bottas, who finished in eighth after needing to make an early pit stop after damaging his front wing on the opening lap.

As a result of his struggles, there had been rumors that Gasly may be replaced by Red Bull Racing even before the 2019 season ends.

However, team principal Christian Horner shot down those rumors. Here is what he had to say about the matter, according to Planet F1.

"“There are no plans to replace Pierre over the course of this season. He’s got the second half of the year to really get it together ahead of what we do for next year, but we’re not looking at replacing him or switching drivers around. It’s really in his court now to get it together and to build on some of the promise we have seen flashes of, he just needs to put it together more consistently.“All we can do is provide him with the best car we can and give him as much support as we can. We will try to work with him and eliminate some of the mistakes. Parts of his race in Hockenheim were very strong, he got Sebastian [Vettel] on the one of the restarts around the outside of Turn 1.“But obviously there were parts of the race that were not so good. The move on [Alex] Albon looked like a misjudgment on his part. It’s frustrating from a team point of view because we want both cars scoring points and the Constructors’ Championship is mightily important to us.”"

Red Bull Racing team manager Helmut Marko also shut them down. Here is what he had to say, according to Motorsport.

"“This year we won’t change. We will end the season as we currently are.”"

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With Pierre Gasly seemingly set to finish out the 2019 Formula 1 season driving for Red Bull Racing, will he get it together? If not, who will replace him for the 2020 season?

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