“I’m a different driver than three years ago,” Pierre Gasly readier than ever to be back at Red Bull

“I’m a different driver than three years ago,” Pierre Gasly readier than ever to be back at Red Bull

Pierre Gasly at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix

Pierre Gasly‘s contract with AlphaTauri ends at the end of 2022. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez’s contract ends after next season, so the French racing driver can expect that Red Bull Racing will reconsider him as a candidate for 2023. Gasly had driven for the Austrian-based racing team in the 2019 season of Formula 1 as a replacement for Daniel Ricciardo following the latter’s departure to Renault. However, Gasly didn’t exactly have the most fairytale-like season at Red Bull with him being demoted to junior team Toro Rosso before the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix.

Nevertheless, if the Mexican maintains a consistent level of performance in the new season, he has a solid chance of remaining with Red Bull partnering Max Verstappen. Perez was instrumental in the Dutchman’s championship triumph last season, fending off Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi by a significant margin.

Gasly labored with the RB15 during his previous stint at Red Bull, and was frequently slower than Max Verstappen. At multiple races, he ended a lap behind Verstappen and only out-qualified him once, at the Canadian Grand Prix, when Verstappen was impeded by a red flag in the qualifying session. Gasly set the quickest lap of the race at both the Chinese and Monaco Grand Prix. His best finish with Red Bull Racing occurred in the British Grand Prix, where he came in fourth as Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel crashed ahead of him.

Pierre Gasly is ready to show Red Bull that he’s ready for the move now

Pierre Gasly at Red Bull in 2019
Pierre Gasly at Red Bull in 2019

On being asked if he’s ready for the move to Red Bull, Gasly explained, “I’m a very different driver than I was three years ago. I think everybody grew from that situation and yeah, I feel ready. Whether it’s going to happen if I do a good year or not, it’s not up to me to decide. Obviously we will have to talk about it at some point but right now we are only in Bahrain, so I don’t want to have this in my head.”

A premature pit stop enabled Gasly to overtake numerous drivers at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix, who were  put on hold for the pitlane to open throughout a safety car deployment, and move up to P3.   While race leader Hamilton was serving a penalty and second-placed driver Lance Stroll was losing positions at the restart, Gasly acquired the advantage and decided to hold off Carlos Sainz to clinch his first Formula One victory  becoming the first French driver to win a Grand Prix since 1996.

Gasly finished the 2021 season of Formula 1 at 9th position with 110 points making it his highest ever points tally in a single season. The French driver will look forward to proving his prowess throughout this season for Red Bull to give him another chance next year to redeem himself.

Also Read: How many languages can Pierre Gasly speak? Can he speak English?