Pierre Gasly says that Red Bull could hardly be a better fit for Max Verstappen even if the team had been custom-built around the Dutch driver.
“Every driver would like to have a team that is tailor-made like Red Bull is to him,” Gasly told Autosprint magazine this week.
Gasly has an insider's view on the situation, having been Verstappen's team mate for 12 races in 2019 after being promoted from the junior Toro Rosso squad.
But early inconsistent outings for the Frenchman resulted him him being swapped back to his old team in favour of rookie driver Alexander Albon.
Although he's settled back in at the newly-renamed AlphaTauri, Gasly still refuses to accept that he wasn't up to the task at Red Bull. He pointed out that the team had a myriad of issues of its own to overcome at the time.
"Formula 1 is a team sport, you can only win if the whole team performs well," he explained. “Everyone needs that help.
"Your performance does not depend solely on yourself and all team members have to give everything for that.”
It's unclear whether Gasly will ever get a second chance to ste up to the senior squad. But if he does, he's confident it will be a different story from his curtailed initial attempt.
“But don’t forget that Formula 1 is a team sport. You can only win if the whole team performs well.”
“Everyone needs that help – your performance does not depend solely on yourself and all team members have to give everything for that.”
“If I went back to Red Bull I would have learned a lot in the meantime," he insisted as he looked back to 2019. “It could have been much better."
But for right now, Gasly's objective is to prove himself and do the best for his current team - whenever racing finally gets back on track after the coronavirus disruption.
“At least this season I’m only interested in racing for AlphaTauri," he stated emphatically. "All of my energy is into that now.
"I want to stay in Formula 1 at all costs," he added.
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