So far no one has been able to get close to Max Verstappen at Red Bull in recent years, every teammate has been soundly destroyed by the Dutch prodigy but Franz Tost believes that Pierre Gasly can give the world championship contender a run for his money.
AlphaTauri team principal Tost has worked with both Verstappen and Gasly in their early Toro Rosso days, so is well qualified to judge the pair. As it stands, veteran Sergio Perez has been the closest and indeed won a race for the Blues already, but still, he is no match for Max in full flight.
Neither was Gasly 1.0 who lasted only half a season as a Red Bull driver alongside Verstappen before being demoted. But, since then, the Frenchman has transformed himself into Gasly 2.0 with his return to the junior team, now AlphaTauri, with sparkling displays on most race day Sundays.
Speaking to Formula Passion, Tost said: “Gasly could get close to Max, but he is the technical reference within the team. This means that he conducts the development of the car according to his own criteria. At that point, the second driver would have a hard time adjusting to his car.
“I don’t want to go into specifics, but [Max] has a unique feeling for how he gets the most from the braking point in the corners and then to the apex. There are other drivers who can’t adjust to a car built for Max also because they have a different driving style.”
This pretty much sums up the problem Gasly faced in his first and only RBR adventure, trying to adapt his style to Verstappen did not happen and then trying to adapt the car, built for Max, to his setup ideas proved even worse.
He was sent packing, back to the team that made him feel special again while once again extracting the maximum from a very talented race driver.
“Gasly feels at home with us,” explained Tost. “And we want to make his every wish come true. I talked to him for a long time, he is young and has a lot of time ahead of him, and that’s okay.”
The 25-year-old Frenchman will start his 80th Grand Prix when he lines up on the grid in Turkey next Sunday where a fourth F1 career podium could beckon for the 2020 Italian Grand Prix winner.
ITALIAN GP ???? pic.twitter.com/zGrXApNKmI
— PIERRE GASLY ?? (@PierreGASLY) September 12, 2021