Pierre Gasly reveals Red Bull’s preference for Max Verstappen, with Charles Leclerc accepting

Pierre Gasly has revealed that Red Bull had a clear preference for Max Verstappen during their time as teammates. The Frenchman was promoted from Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) to Red Bull in 2019, but was unable to even complete the season with the team.

Gasly was demoted back to Toro Rosso after just 12 races in the season. He lagged badly behind Verstappen in on-track performance. In those 12 races, the French driver finished two races outside the points, and had only two top-five results, with a best result of fourth at the British Grand Prix. Meanwhile, his Dutch teammate finished in the top five in every race, including three podium finishes and two race victories.

In a recent interview with Formula 1, Pierre Gasly, who left the Red Bull family for the Alps in 2023 and has remained there ever since, admitted how complicated his situation as Max Verstappen’s teammate is.

“For me, it was a very special situation. It can’t be seen as six months and 12 races and ‘How did I do?’ in a very simple way, because nothing was clear when I was there. I could talk about it for hours. Is there a need for that? No, the chapter is closed. Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don’t.”

He added: “Obviously it’s sad that it didn’t work out. At the same time, it wasn’t under my control. I know for my part I tried every time to do the best I could with what I was given. Unfortunately, it wasn’t made for two cars. You could say it works perfectly with Max.”

Gasly also revealed that he had several discussions in 2019 with Charles Leclerc, who was promoted from Sauber to Ferrari that year, about how different their treatment would be after joining the front-row teams.

“They (Red Bull) are doing a great job for him (Max Verstappen), but… I remember at the time I was with them, Charles was in his first season with Ferrari, and we were discussing it a lot. It was a completely different approach for two drivers with similar experience to get to the big team.”

Although the Red Bull era was a dark period in Pierre Gasly’s Formula 1 career, he stressed that he is grateful to the team nonetheless. It was with the junior team that he took his first Formula 1 win in 2020, when it was rebranded as AlphaTauri.

Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff dismisses perceptions of Max Verstappen being the ‘boss’ at the team

None of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammates during his 10-year Formula 1 career were able to perform on par with him. While Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez had strong stages as they beat him to take the race win, it didn’t last long.

The Dutchman has raved about every teammate Red Bull has put alongside him. At a certain point, a growing consensus emerged that Verstappen was the team’s favorite when it came to the technical decisions of its cars, and that the pointy setup he wanted never went down well with his teammates.

However, in a recent interview with De Telegraaf, when Red Bull CEO Oliver Mintzlaff was asked about this public perception of Max Verstappen being the ‘boss’ within the team, he replied:

“Yes, that’s nonsense. I can tell you that all the agreements are clear, and he’s never made a single request from me. The same goes for his boss and his father. Max is clear about what he wants, and that’s okay, because he’s the best driver in the world. But there’s only one boss with us, and he’s so famous we can sell him. Max is a great man, not a diva.”

In 2025, Max Verstappen had two teammates – Liam Lawson for the first two races of the season and Yuki Tsunoda for the rest. Lawson was brutally demoted to Racing Bulls without being given a good chance to prove himself, a decision which Verstappen also disagreed with. While Tsunoda had 22 races at his disposal, he also couldn’t have performed much better.

In 2026, Verstappen will have another new teammate, Isak Hajar, who shone in the Racing Bulls and claimed his first podium finish at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix.