Gasly believes Red Bull drive is payback for when he was overlooked for F1 seat after GP2 success
Pierre Gasly feels his Red Bull Formula 1 shot is payback for being snubbed after his GP2 title success, when he was “at the right place at the wrong time”.
Gasly became Red Bull’s first junior to win the GP2 championship in 2016 but had to race in Super Formula the following year as Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat were retained at Toro Rosso.
However, Sainz’s early move to Renault and Kvyat being dropped after a poor run of results meant Red Bull drafted Gasly into its junior team for five races at the end of 2017.
Gasly earned a full-time Toro Rosso drive for 2018 and was then handed an early promotion to the senior team to replace the Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo. “I always believed that if you do right things, at some point good things will come to you,” Gasly said when asked if it was payback for having to wait for his first F1 chance. “I’m really happy to see it paying off now. I get great opportunities thanks to all the hard work I’ve done in the past.
“I’ve been sometimes at the right place at the wrong time, and this time I’ve been at the right place at the right time.
“My life has been pretty awesome in the last 13 months. It has not always been the case but I always felt like, ‘OK, if I keep pushing as hard as I can, and keep giving the maximum out of myself, good things are going to come’.”