Helmut Marko takes fresh swipe at axed Pierre Gasly for ‘running out of excuses’
Pierre Gasly was demoted to Toro Rosso from Red Bull at the summer break in 2019.
Helmut Marko has said Pierre Gasly struggled to come to terms with Max Verstappen being much quicker than him when they were Red Bull teammates.
During his time at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen, Gasly struggled to keep pace with the Dutch driver – to the point where Red Bull opted to drop him back to Toro Rosso midway through the 2019 season.
Helmut Marko: Pierre Gasly couldn’t accept Max Verstappen is faster
With Gasly struggling, matters came to a head in his final two races at Red Bull as the French driver crashed during practice for the German Grand Prix before being involved in a collision with stablemate Alex Albon during the race – Albon would replace Gasly in the Red Bull seat just a few weeks later.
In Hungary, Gasly came home in a respectable sixth place but had been lapped by the leading drivers as Verstappen came home in second place after being Lewis Hamilton’s closest competitor.
With little to lose, Red Bull plumped for a mid-season swap, with Gasly having a much more enjoyable second half of the season as he settled in at Toro Rosso (now the VCARB team).
At the time, Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko had hinted at some behind-the-scenes tension following speculation Gasly had been in an argument with Adrian Newey over how to build the Red Bull to better suit his own driving style, with the Austrian saying: “We told Gasly that he should use the Verstappen setting. He has to adapt it to his driving style.
“He should concentrate on driving and not constantly tell Mr. Newey how to build the car for him.”
Speaking to GrandPrix247.com five years on, Marko has said the reason for Gasly’s frustrations was likely his inability to come to terms with the reality of the situation.
Put to him that Marko had claimed Gasly was constantly seeking to “reinvent the car” every time he got into it, Marko laughed.
“Yes. When he was lapped in Budapest, he wanted a different suspension,” he said.
“He’s not an engineer. He was just running out of excuses and simply couldn’t accept that Max is just the faster guy.”
With Red Bull’s junior programme currently stacked with promising prospects like Isack Hadjar, who leads the Formula 2 championship, and youngster Arvin Lindblad – second in the Formula 3 standings – Marko said he’s not seeking to find the next Max Verstappen.
“I’m not looking for a new Max because Max is unique,” he said.
“And it will be difficult for anyone to be his teammate. We have a situation where our second driver unfortunately isn’t performing as he should. So we will have an evaluation in the summer break of what we are going to do.”
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Five years on from Gasly’s replacement, Red Bull is eyeing up the prospect of another mid-season swap. Having dropped Nyck de Vries before the summer break last year in order to bring Daniel Ricciardo back into the fold following a promising Pirelli tyre test at Silverstone, Sergio Perez’s prospects of staying on appear to be diminishing.
While the Mexican recently signed a two-year extension with Red Bull, his lack of points over the last six races – just 15 points scored – have resulted in him falling outside the 100-point minimum his contract is believed to require him to be within of Max Verstappen. At 137 points behind, this deficit would trigger an exit clause Red Bull can use to replace him – should the team feel like it.
Ricciardo is the leading candidate for the seat, and Liam Lawson carried out a filming day for Red Bull on Thursday that allowed the team to gather more data on the Kiwi’s speed behind the wheel of the RB20.
Marko re-iterated his position that Red Bull will make a decision over the summer break about what to do – the last two races before the summer break being crucial for Perez if he is to save his career.
“All Formula 1 contracts have exit clauses, most of them related to performance or let’s say for the top drivers,” Marko said.
“As I mentioned before, we will have an evaluation during the summer break and then we will make a decision.”
Asked whether Lawson is primed for the seat, Marko said: “First we have to see. So two more races and there will be more outings with Lawson. There’s also Yuki Tusnoda who is doing very well.”
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