Red Bull: Gasly is too weak

Helmut Marko believes Pierre Gasly is “too weak” in certain situations in Formula 1, and needs to improve to stop making avoidable mistakes.

While Max Verstappen romped to another impressive victory, his second of the season, at the German Grand Prix at the weekend, Gasly once again struggled despite being in the same car.

The Frenchman started from fourth in the grid after recovering well in qualifying following a crash in practice, but dropped places from the get-go.

He managed to stay clear of the various crashes and retirements up until the latter stages, but ended up colliding into the back of Alexander Albon after the Toro Rosso had overtaken him, which caused enough damage that he was forced to retire.

It was the second time Albon had overtook Gasly, and Marko reckons his Red Bull man needs to be stronger in individual battles.

“In qualifying he showed a strong reaction to his accident,” the Austrian told Auto Motor und Sport.

“The speed in the race would not have been so bad, but Gasly is just too weak in duels and overtaking. The crash at the end with Albon was completely unnecessary.”

As Toro Rosso is the junior team of Red Bull, Marko is in charge of Albon and Daniil Kvyat, too, who both secured excellent results with a sixth-place and third-place finish respectively.

He thinks the performance of the team bodes well for races to come.

“At last you have realised the potential,” Marko claimed he told Toro Rosso.

“It did not work that way in practice because the upgrade did not work as it should and mistakes were made. In the race they woke up then. Kvyat is a gifted racer, and Albon has again shown his fighter qualities. That's a good prospect for the future.”

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

George Russell reacts to devastating Bahrain Grand Prix retirement: 'I'm pretty used to this'

• 3 hours ago

Fernando Alonso reveals 'wild' Aston Martin Bahrain GP and being faster than Lewis Hamilton

• Yesterday 21:44

Lewis Hamilton claims Ferrari error cost him Bahrain Grand Prix victory chance

• Yesterday 20:54

Christian Horner congratulates Max Verstappen and Red Bull after his RBPT project achieves first F1 win

• Yesterday 19:58

FIA release statement after F1 cars’ ‘software error' sparks Bahrain Grand Prix chaos

• Yesterday 18:54

F1 Bahrain Grand Prix 2026 results: Final classification with all penalties applied from Sepang

• Yesterday 17:55