{"id":402517,"date":"2026-01-09T18:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T18:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402517\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T18:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T18:45:09","slug":"missing-out-on-f1-seat-after-gp2-title-was-a-slap-in-the-face","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402517\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing out on F1 seat after GP2 title was a ‘slap in the face’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pierre Gasly<\/a> has described not securing a Formula 1 seat after winning the GP2 (now Formula 2) championship as a “slap in my face”.<\/p>\n

The Frenchman secured the GP2 championship in 2016 with Prema Powerteam, but instead of sailing into a full-time F1 seat at Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls<\/a>) as a Red Bull junior driver, he remained as the reserve driver in 2017.<\/p>\n

“It was so hard to take as I was told, ‘If you win the GP2 championship, you are going to get a shot in Formula 1’,” Gasly told F1.com<\/a>. “It was like a slap in my face. I thought, ‘OK, what do I need to do more?’ I kept the mentality that I would get my shot.”<\/p>\n

While Gasly continued to serve as reserve driver at the start of 2017, he received the call that he would be replacing Daniil Kvyat<\/a> at the Malaysian Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

“I remember I was jumping on my bed in Malaysia,” the 29-year-old said of his reaction to being told he would drive in the series. “I went as a reserve for Red Bull. Helmut called me to say, ‘Get ready \u2013 this weekend, you are racing.’ When I got the shot, I was the happiest. I remember going on the grid and knowing I’m given this chance, now it’s in my hands, I have the car, the team, the people \u2013 now it’s up to me and I’m in control.”<\/p>\n

Gasly went on to secure a full-time seat with Toro Rosso in 2018 before being promoted to Red Bull in 2019 after Daniel Ricciardo<\/a> left the Milton Keynes outfit.<\/p>\n

\"Helmut <\/p>\n

Helmut Marko, Consultant, Red Bull Racing, with Pierre Gasly, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Jerry Andre \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

“I did four or five races in 2017, and then I started the season in 2018. In the second race, bang \u2013 P4 in Bahrain. It created straight away massive hype. Right after Budapest, Daniel [Ricciardo] announced he was leaving [Red Bull]. I remember arriving in Greece for my holiday, and it was like, ‘Whoa, Daniel is going’.<\/p>\n

“Red Bull had Carlos Sainz<\/a> as an option and they had me. It’s between Sainz and myself. The phone rang and Helmut told me ‘OK, you’re a Red Bull Racing<\/a> driver at the start of next year’ \u2013 this was six months into my first [full] season in F1.”<\/p>\n

Gasly was ultimately replaced at Red Bull ahead of the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix by Alex Albon<\/a>. The French driver went on to sign with Alpine<\/a> on for the 2023 onwards.<\/p>\n

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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pierre Gasly has described not securing a Formula 1 seat after winning the GP2 (now Formula 2) championship…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,195711,79010,817,813,816,1513,213774,946,85,1511],"class_list":["post-402517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-barcelona-catalunya-pre-season-testing","tag-circuit-de-barcelona-catalunya","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-pierre-gasly","tag-pierre-gasly-missing-out-on-f1-seat-after-gp2-title-was-a-slap-in-the-face","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}