Gasly warned over 'ruthless' Marko

Gasly warned over 'ruthless' Marko

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 6 November 2018 11:45

Former Formula 1 driver and current television pundit Paul di Resta has warned Pierre Gasly to be wary of the "ruthless" streak which his new Red Bull boss, Helmut Marko, has displayed in the past when deciding to drop a driver from his line-up.

During the summer break, it was announced that Daniel Ricciardo would be leaving Red Bull in favour of Renault, with Gasly subsequently being promoted from Toro Rosso to take his place alongside Max Verstappen for the 2019 season.

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Di Resta, a former driver for Force India and Williams, has warned Gasly to be aware of how Marko has dealt with drivers in the past.

"If Marko chooses someone, he will take it seriously," Di Resta explained to Motorsport.

"But in front of every rider he gets promoted, there is also a driver he drops, he is pretty ruthless in. Some were fired (too early), when I was not sure they deserved something like that. You only have a chance, if he feels that you really deserve it."

Di Resta's colleague, Martin Brundle, praised the work of Marko in bringing through some of the top drivers on the circuit at the moment, but admitted there were some others who were not given a fair chance by the Red Bull chief.

"With (Sebastian) Vettel, Ricciardo and Verstappen, you cannot say that he really did anything wrong," Brundle said

"People like [Sebastien] Buemi and [Jean-Eric] Vergne have not been given enough time in F1."

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