Red Bull made it “very clear” to Gasly why he wasn’t an option for F1 2021

Red Bull chief Christian Horner insists it was made “very clear” to Pierre Gasly why he was not recalled to the team for the 2021 Formula 1 season. 

Gasly was replaced at Red Bull by Alex Albon after just 12 races of a difficult first campaign with the team in 2019, with the Frenchman returning to the then Toro Rosso squad for the rest of the season. 

He has been able to translate a strong end to 2019 into this season, where Gasly has been one of the stand-out drivers so far with a series of impressive drives, most notably taking a shock win for AlphaTauri at Monza. 

Despite his form, Gasly will remain in AlphaTauri’s line-up for 2021. While Gasly stressed he was not disappointed by the decision, he admitted he was surprised that Red Bull had “not really” provided him with an explanation why he would not return alongside Max Verstappen. 

But Red Bull team principal Horner rejected Gasly’s claim, insisting that “it’s been made very clear him” why he was not being recalled. 

“He’s a key part of the AlphaTauri team,” Horner said. “AlphaTauri has got different aspirations than that of Toro Rosso. It’s not just purely a junior team it’s more a sister team, as I’ve previously stated.

“We were very pleased for Pierre that he’s doing a great job in that environment. He’s happy in that environment. The team is very happy with him. So why break that up? I think that that’s been made clear to him.

“He’s on a long-term contract with Red Bull for the next several years. We have all the information that we need on Pierre and I think he’s been made very aware throughout the discussions that his future has always laid with AlphaTauri simply because of the evolving nature of that team and the aspirations of that team.”