Gasly: Politics and money too influential in driver selections

Pierre Gasly has lamented the fact that many drivers, including his former karting rival Esteban Ocon, are left out of contention for a seat in Formula 1 due to circumstances not related to their skills, and believes that ability should be the only consideration, not politics or financial reasons.

With businessman Lawrence Stroll taking over ownership of Force India, Ocon's current team, he is expected to take his son from Williams for the 2019 campaign.

Ocon is viewed as one of the most talented younger drivers on the circuit, but teams have not been eager to take him on due to his position as a member of Mercedes' junior development programme.

It is Gasly's wish that drivers are selected based on their ability alone, not other factors.

“I mean, this world in F1, it’s not the first time that things are unfair," the newly announced Red Bull driver said.

"I’ve always said it, and I think everyone more or less agrees with it, that performance should be the only parameter to get your seat in Formula 1 and we all believe it should be the case.

“Unfortunately it’s a sport where politics and money play a massive part and as a driver it’s difficult to accept sometimes and I think he’s facing a situation that’s quite unfair.”

Gasly's comments were echoed by Ocon's current Force India team-mate, Sergio Perez, who believes the Frenchman has simply been unlucky.

“It will be very sad because I think he’s a great talent, he has done a good job and definitely deserves a seat in Formula 1,” said Perez.

“We’ve seen in the past with Nico Hulkenberg after such a year that he did in his first season and he got kicked out. Formula 1 is a very hard world and very limited on opportunities.

“It’s all about timing. Drivers like Charles Leclerc come in at the right time, right moment and boom, get straight away a massive opportunity.

“As always you need a bit of luck in this sport to in the right time at the right moment and certainly it’s not looking that way from Esteban at the moment but I am sure he has great support from Toto [Wolff] so he’s anyway in a privileged position.”

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