Red Bull slammed by axed F1 star for 'lack of support'

Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly smiling at the camera after their helmet swap at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025 — Photo: © IMAGO

Red Bull

Red Bull slammed by axed F1 star for 'lack of support'

Pierre Gasly was axed by Red Bull in 2019

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Monday 22 December 2025 11:58

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Former Red Bull F1 star Pierre Gasly has revealed that he had a 'sad' time at Red Bull in 2019.

The Frenchman was promoted up into the seat alongside Max Verstappen following the 2018 season after Daniel Ricciardo opted to leave the team for Renault.

Gasly had performed well at Red Bull's sister team and hopes were high that he could be the perfect long-term team-mate for the Dutchman.

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However, Gasly was replaced after just 12 races with the team after failing to secure a single podium in 2019 while Verstappen was on his way to three wins and nine podiums.

Gasly was dropped in favour of Alex Albon for the remainder of the season, and instead went back down to the sister team - then called Toro Rosso.

The Frenchman then rebuilt his career, claiming a maiden career podium in Brazil later that year by finishing second, before going on to claim a grand prix victory a season later at the Italian Grand Prix.

After it became clear that he would not be promoted up into the Red Bull team for a second opportunity, however, Gasly moved away from the Red Bull family and instead joined Alpine, where he still applies his trade.

Now, he has opened up on what he felt was a lack of support at Red Bull during his time there.

"I’m not going to lie, it was sad," Gasly said on the F1 Off the Grid show. "In 2019, my second year in Formula 1, I had no support, in a very big team that strongly supported Max, for good reason, because he was getting results.

"But I was starting with a new engineer from Formula E who had no F1 experience. So the dynamic was strange. I didn’t really have the necessary tools to be competitive. I tried to fight in my own way because I wanted to, and ultimately, I’m here to perform.

"They weren’t happy, but neither was I, because I could see that I couldn’t show my potential."

Red Bull's second driver problems

Red Bull are still struggling to find a team-mate for Verstappen. After Albon was axed after the 2020 season, they opted to go for somebody outside of the Red Bull setup in Sergio Perez and this led to a period of stability.

However, in his third season with the team, Perez's performances began to drop off and he was eventually axed at the end of the 2024 season.

Since then, Red Bull have tried Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, both of whom have struggled markedly, and the latter has now been replaced by Isack Hadjar for the 2026 season.

It remains to be seen whether or not Hadjar will succeed in the seat at the main team, and also whether Verstappen will still be there alongside him beyond the end of 2026.

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Pierre Gasly