Helmut Marko says Red Bull is likely to lose Pierre Gasly after 2023 if its senior bull team can't offer the Frenchman a seat alongside Max Verstappen.
A long-standing member of the Red Bull family, Gasly started his career in F1 at the end of 2017 with Toro Rosso and was promoted to Red Bull Racing for 2019.
But Gasly's struggle to perform on a par with Verstappen decided the Milton Keynes-based outfit to swap back the Frenchman with Alex Albon during F1's summer break.
Thereafter, Gasly rebuilt his confidence and has raced as the undisputed leader of the Faenza squad under its AlphaTauri guise, a status underlined by a memorable win at the Italian Grand Prix in 2020, while Albon was sidelined at the end of the year and replaced by Sergio Perez.
The 26-year-old's impressive results have expectedly encouraged many, including former Toro Rosso co-owner Gerhard Berger, to suggest that Gasly is now worthy of a second chance with Red Bull Racing.
"Gerhard is not wrong," Marko told German website Formel1.de. "But at the moment we still have a contract with Checo.
"We have to compare the performance of these two drivers, and with Checo we still have until the middle of the year.
"With Gasly we still have a contract until 2023, and it’s already clear that if this contract expires and we can't offer him a chance to move up, we will most likely lose him, and we don't want that."
Gasly has repeatedly stated that he feels he deserves a second chance with Red Bull, an assertion recently supported by Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley who acknowledged that the Frenchman is ready to make "the next step up".
But the only thing Gasly can do to help his cause is to keep his head down at AlphaTauri and perform to the best of his ability.
"I'm focused on doing my best right now, but obviously I want to be in a fast car to fight for wins and victories and that's the only thing that matters," Gasly said.
"I want to win in Formula 1 and I've got to have a car which allows me to win. We'll discuss that with Helmut when it will be the right moment."
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