Pierre Gasly to join GP2

Chloe Hewitt · Sep 2, 2014

Red Bull Junior Team member Pierre Gasly will be joining Caterham GP2 to contest the final three rounds of the series - in Italy, Russia and Abu Dhabi - to replace Tom Dillmann in the Formula 1 support series.

Gasly - who is best known for winning the 2013 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship - is currently competing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship, alongside fellow Red Bull Junior Team member and championship leader Carlos Sainz Junior. With only three rounds remaining also in the Renault 3.5 Championship, Gasly is still able to contest all of these as none of these clash with the Formula 1 calendar.

This somewhat surprising move makes Gasly the first member of the Red Bull programme to race in GP2 since Sebastien Buemi back in 2008.

Historically, the Red Bull Juniors haven't faired too well in GP2 with World Series by Renault being the series that catapults their drivers into Formula 1; all of the current Red Bull connected drivers have raced in World Series by Renault before gaining a Formula 1 seat (Daniil Kvyat switched from the Eurocup 2.0 category to GP3 before making the move to Formula 1 whereas the others went straight from World Series by Renault to Formula 1).

Pierre Gasly is a very highly rated member of the Red Bull Junior Team, along with Carlos Sainz Junior however the pairs futures are in doubts after the signing of Dutchman and teenager Max Verstappen to Toro Rosso for the 2015 season.

Gasly will enter a GP2 grid filled with very talented drivers with the likes of Jolyon Palmer, Williams third driver Felipe Nasr, McLaren Junior driver Stoffel Vandoorne and Mitch Evans to name a few.

GP2 is heading to Monza this weekend with Palmer leading the championship by 32 points from Nasr with Vandoorne a further 33 points behind Nasr. However the battle for third place is a lot closer with Johnny Cecotto trailing the Belgian by eight points and Evans 25 points behind the third place driver.

R.J. O'Connell · Sep 2, 2014

I personally like this move. While Tom Dillmann is a very talented driver who deserved much better opportunities than the ones he was given in the first tier of F1's junior categories, Gasly comes in with much more upside at age 18, and has proven to be a consistent front-runner as a rookie in FR3.5. He could provide similar production to Dillmann with the additional backing of Red Bull to aid the Caterham racing organization.

And seeing as this is the first time Red Bull has placed a driver in GP2 since Sebastien Buemi, one has to wonder if Dr. Marko is re-evaluating his outlook on the series as a stepping stone for his drivers. This year, GP2 has the true top-level talent like Vandoorne, Marciello, Evans, and Nasr all performing at a high level, which is something it couldn't say for the last three years, maybe even the last four.