Pierre Gasly announced on Friday that he would sit down with Red Bull Racing to further discuss his future. Before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, this indeed happened. A few hours before the start of the race, the two men spoke on the terrace of the Red Bull motor home.
Gasly was hoping to sit next to Max Verstappen in 2023, but Marko and Christian Horner preferred to extend Sergio Perez's contract. They did so not by one year, but even by two years. It means that Gasly will not start racing for Red Bull Racing until 2025 at the earliest.
The talented Frenchman's contract at AlphaTauri expires after 2023. He has never made a secret of the fact that he considers himself ripe for a step up. However, Marko knows that next season there aren't really any spots that will be available that are better than AlphaTauri. Red Bull hopes Gasly stays, although they will no doubt understand that Gasly is not happy with Perez's new two-year commitment.
Gasly and Marko hold talks
Best for Gasly is to stay with AlphaTauri and wait for that RedBull seat. Theoretically it's just 3 teams that can build (outspend others) winning car, RedBull, Ferrari and Mercedes. So if you can't get into later 2, then better to wait your time in RedBull sister team.
McLaren and Alpine would be step down. They will not build cars that can win races and even on this race we see AlphaTauri actually having faster car than both McLaren and Alpine. So no need to kill your dreams moving to McLaren or Alpine.
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