Photo: Scuderia AlphaTauri / Twitter
The driver market in Formula One is starting to take on a bit of a Game of Thrones feel for next year. Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner doesn’t want to release Pierre Gasly (so that he can go to Alpine) unless IndyCar star Colton Herta is granted a super license in order to join AlphaTauri in 2023. How fun!
Red Bull has already agreed in principle to allow Gasly to go to Alpine (as a replacement for Fernando Alonso, who’s going to Aston Martin), which means AlphaTauri will end up with at least one free seat next year – the jury is still out on Yuki Tsunoda.
However, Christian Horner has suggested that he’s only interested in replacing Gasly with Colton Herta, who at the moment is ineligible for a super license under the current points system. Unfortunately for AlphaTauri, even F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali chimed in to say that he supports the FIA sticking to the rules and not making any exceptions, reports Motorsport.
Still, Horner is quite excited about bringing Herta into Formula One, calling him an “exciting talent”.
“He’s a younger American guy that’s been a standout talent in the US, so it’ll be very interesting to see how he performs in F1. And F1 obviously is growing in popularity in the US market at the moment, and to have a successful US driver could be very interesting. It could be interesting for us, in the longer term.”
Horner then went on to say: “I mean, we’ve got contracts with our existing drivers, but AlphaTauri or Toro Rosso, they’ve produced a great stable of drivers for us to draw upon, whether it be Sebastian [Vettel] or Max [Verstappen] or Daniel [Ricciardo] over the years.”
As for any alternatives to Herta, Horner simply stated that he’s satisfied with how Gasly is performing at AlphaTauri, which is why he doesn’t think “there will be a desire to change if there wasn’t an interesting option available.”
However, Christian Horner has suggested that he’s only interested in replacing Gasly with Colton Herta, who at the moment is ineligible for a super license under the current points system. Unfortunately for AlphaTauri, even F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali chimed in to say that he supports the FIA sticking to the rules and not making any exceptions, reports Motorsport.
Still, Horner is quite excited about bringing Herta into Formula One, calling him an “exciting talent”.
“He’s a younger American guy that’s been a standout talent in the US, so it’ll be very interesting to see how he performs in F1. And F1 obviously is growing in popularity in the US market at the moment, and to have a successful US driver could be very interesting. It could be interesting for us, in the longer term.”
Horner then went on to say: “I mean, we’ve got contracts with our existing drivers, but AlphaTauri or Toro Rosso, they’ve produced a great stable of drivers for us to draw upon, whether it be Sebastian [Vettel] or Max [Verstappen] or Daniel [Ricciardo] over the years.”
As for any alternatives to Herta, Horner simply stated that he’s satisfied with how Gasly is performing at AlphaTauri, which is why he doesn’t think “there will be a desire to change if there wasn’t an interesting option available.”
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