Former Formula 1 driver Johnny Herbert gave his opinion about Pierre Gasly's situation and said that the Frenchman should look for other options on the grid after Sergio Pérez's renewal with Red Bull
With the experience of someone who has competed 161 races in Formula 1 - and won three times - Johnny Herbert believes that Pierre Gasly should leave AlphaTauri after the end of the season. Still under contract with Red Bull until 2023, the French driver has seen the top team renew his contract with Sergio Perez until 2024, which makes his chances of regaining a place in the top team even more difficult.
Thus, Herbert thought that Gasly should do something similar to Daniel Ricciardo, who left Red Bull for Renault after the arrival of Max Verstappen - who has since then always been the team's 'darling'. Johnny highlighted the importance of AlphaTauri in the Frenchman's career, but still maintained his opinion that Pierre cannot remain 'stuck' with the same team forever.
"I think he needs to do what Daniel [Ricciardo] did and leave," Herbert opined in an interview with the F1 Nation podcast, "But that's the situation at the moment: the options have diminished a bit. What he needs to do is try to position himself so that when the window of opportunity appears, he hears from AlphaTauri or Red Bull, whatever: 'we're going to let you go,'" he explained.
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"I think that's very, very important for him as a driver," he said. "Because you don't want to be stuck forever in the same team - in this case AlphaTauri, no matter how good they are at providing him with the car - for the rest of his career," he stressed.
Herbert went further and said that Gasly should already be looking at other possibilities within the grid to showcase his work, even citing Aston Martin - which is still unsure about Sebastian Vettel's continuity in the upcoming Formula One season.
"I think he should have already gone there, he should already be probing to say, 'yes, I'm ready and willing to commit.' I think that's when drivers need to make tough decisions, if you want to call it that," he noted. "But for a career perspective, it would be the right thing for him to do. I don't want Red Bull to kind of prevent him from thriving in another team," he finished.