Gasly’s roadside recovery

The focus on Red Bull’s season was undeniably its performance with Honda, but a mid-year driver swap cannot be ignored. And no matter how well Alex Albon did in Pierre Gasly’s place, Red Bull would rather have never found out how that change would work.

Before the season began, a breakthrough podium finish would have seemed very likely for Gasly, not least because Red Bull and Honda started the season solidly. But it quickly became clear that this would be difficult.

After crashing twice, heavily, in pre-season testing, Gasly’s season barely got going. One week into the summer break, after a particularly dismal weekend in Hungary, he was dropped to Toro Rosso, with Albon taking his seat.

But Gasly came out swinging. Any lingering sulkiness on the first day back in the paddock in Belgium quickly evaporated and was replaced by a desire to prove a few people wrong. Which he has done: Gasly scored points in more than half of the races he contested for Toro Rosso this year, including a shock second place in Brazil.

When Gasly lost his drive at Red Bull, his place on the programme was in jeopardy. It looked near-impossible that he could make himself a legitimate Red Bull Racing candidate again. Much like his Toro Rosso team-mate Daniil Kvyat – who fills a placeholder role – a lack of immediate alternatives within the Red Bull driver pool probably helped put Gasly in a weird limbo – still in F1, but with no real likelihood of getting the big chance he craved (and lost).

However, the version of Gasly on display in the second half of 2019 is good enough to race for Red Bull again. A year ago, the podium breakthrough would have felt like a formality and something of a necessity to keep his Red Bull seat. That Gasly scoring a podium turned out to be a shock, and is just one of the steps to winning back Red Bull’s favour, tells you all you need to know about his rollercoaster season.

“Any sulkiness on the first day back quickly evaporated and was replaced by a desire to prove people wrong”