Red Bull's Jonathan Wheatley says Pierre Gasly deserves a new shot at a top F1 team

Red Bull‘s Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley has said that French driver Pierre Gasly is ready for another shot at a leading F1 team, after a handful of impressive years leading the AlphaTauri garage.

Gasly turned 26-years-old earlier this week and is set to embark on another season with the Faenza-based team, after producing a stellar 2021 campaign where he was arguably one of the best of the rest behind Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Indeed, he certainly appears to have put the difficulties he endured at Red Bull, that saw him replaced mid-season by Alex Albon, behind him with him regularly finishing inside the top 10 in qualifying and scoring points following on from that.

He looks in very good shape and well-rounded as a driver now, then, and there have been growing calls for him to return to a front-running team – whether that be Red Bull or another – in the near future.

For 2022, though, he will be remaining with AlphaTauri and will be looking to once again underline his credentials to be joining a leading outfit.

Certainly, his performances have not been lost on Red Bull’s Wheatley, who says that the Frenchman deserves a new shot at the top of the field.

He told the Jack Threlfall Show: “With Alex [Albon,] we learned a huge amount of things.

“We learned how to help support a younger driver who was having a difficult time, same with Pierre before that and look at the confidence Pierre has got now.

“He is back in the slightly smaller team and I think, honestly, Pierre is ready to make the next step up now.

“You have to wait and see what cards you are dealt, like all of us in our ambitions and what you want to do in life.”

Certainly, it would be nice to see Gasly getting a shot back up at the front but F1