Pierre Gasly believes he will have a chance to be Max Verstappen’s teammate in the future 

Pierre Gasly believes he will have a chance at the second Red Bull seat alongside Max Verstappen in the future as the “market changes”. The Alpha Tauri driver hopes his impressive performances with the team will be “rewarded” soon.

Speaking about his future in F1 during an interview with Auto Motor und Sport, the Frenchman said:

“The market will change. For many drivers, contracts will expire in 2023. There will be opportunities. Everything happens very quickly in Formula 1. I am not too worried. There are opportunities. I know that. We’ll see when it's the right time.”

“At the moment I am concentrating on every race weekend, on my performance. I will give my best. The best I can do is repeat results like I did in Mexico. To finish fifth in qualifying — behind Mercedes and Red Bull in a midfield car. I would certainly do better with a faster car. That’s the only thing that matters.”

Pierre Gasly previously drove alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull during the first half of the 2019 season. His lackluster performances, however, saw him replaced by Alex Albon. The Frenchman struggled to cope under intense pressure and lacked the confidence to extract the maximum from the package. As a result, he would often be nearly a second off Verstappen’s pace in qualifying, and would struggle to make up lost ground during races.

After a demotion back to Toro Rosso, now Alpha Tauri, Gasly rebuilt his confidence and started to put in phenomenal performances for the Faenza-based team. During the 2021 season, the Frenchman single-handedly kept the little Italian team in contention for P5 in the constructors as his rookie teammate Yuki Tsunoda struggled to extract consistent performances.

Gasly was left disappointed after Red Bull picked Sergio Perez over him to partner Max Verstappen for the 2021 season. The 25-year-old however believes that a second chance at the senior team will arrive in the near future.

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When Pierre Gasly sacrificed own race to help Max Verstappen in championship battle

At the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, title protagonist Max Verstappen was on the backfoot courtesy of the grid penalty he had received post qualifying for failing to obey double-waved yellow flags. Despite qualifying on the front row, the penalty dropped him to P6.

The Dutchman, however, made an excellent start to overtake two cars by the end of turn 1. Ahead of him, his old teammate Pierre Gasly was fighting two-time world champion Fernando Alonso for P3. Gasly had lost the position to Alonso at the start and was rapidly catching the Spaniard. The battle was extremely important for Alpha Tauri in order to beat Alpine to P5 in the constructors.

When Max Verstappen started to catch Gasly after the first few laps, the Frenchman, however, ran wide on the final turn, allowing Verstappen to easily overtake him on the straight.

At first glance, it seemed like Gasly had made a mistake, but on closer inspection, it was apparent that the move was intentional. At the start of the straight, Gasly was a mere seven tenths behind Alonso, and therefore had DRS. But he didn’t use it until the final 50 meters of the straight – after Verstappen was completely ahead of him.

In an effort not to hold up Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly had therefore sacrificed his own race as he couldn’t catch Fernando Alonso for the rest of the race. Alonso later went on to finish on the podium – his first in nearly seven years.