from the chaff, the Red Bull Junior Team has
groomed just one world champion. The road
towards, through and beyond Sebastian Vettel’s
four world titles is littered with the career
wreckage of also-rans who were merely quite
good. Viewed through Marko’s merciless prism,
adequacy equates to inadequacy.
But while Gasly arrives with a spring in his
step and a grin on his face – like some but not
all of his predecessors – he’s not attended by
the miasma of entitlement that several of them
exhibited. And when F1 Racing broaches the
question of whether Marko has sat him down
with a list of must-must-must benchmarks to
hit, he doesn’t equivocate about where his
priorities lie, or what motivates him.
“Yeah, I think it’s clear. We haven’t had a
detailed conversation about targets because it
depends on the potential of the car; if you have a
PLG¿HOGFDU\RXFDQ¶W¿JKWIRUSRGLXPVRUZLQV
so you need to be objective. The main things
are to show speed, good racing, to be consistent
and to be there when there are chances to score
points. For me, the main thing is that what I do,
I do for myself because I love racing. For me, the
most important thing is to be happy with my own
performance. I’m always looking for perfection,
VR,¶PQHYHUUHDOO\VDWLV¿HG ́
Uncertainty around the technical package
gives Gasly and his team-mate Brendon Hartley
- another Junior Team evictee, but one freshly
returned from exile – a blank slate from which to
work. Late last season, Toro Rosso’s relationship
with engine supplier Renault noisily self-
destructed just as Gasly was drafted in to replace
Daniil Kvyat. It’s a sign of how desperate the
team were to be shot of their partner that they
paired up with Honda, whose wares promised
little better on the evidence of a woeful 2017.
Over winter the Japanese might have turned
that narrative on its head: in pre-season testing
it was the nervousness of the STR13 on turn-in
that caught the eye rather than a lack of oomph.
An air of optimism suffused the garage, shot
through with schadenfreude at the predicament
of McLaren, Honda’s ex-partner, whose MCL33
regularly ground to a smoking halt.
“The end of last year was pretty tough with
DOOWKH>5HQDXOW@HQJLQHLVVXHVZHKDG ́VD\V
Gasly. “This year is going to be a big challenge for
everyone in the team because we’re not customers
any more, it’s a different kind of relationship
than before. We have the same targets as Honda
IN JAPAN, YOU
NEED TO BE
TRANSPARENT AND
STRAIGHTFORWARD
BUT IN A VERY
DIFFERENT WAY
THAN IN EUROPE”
“
and you really feel that the Japanese and the
Italians are working as one team together. The
atmosphere and the dynamic is positive.
“The Japanese are pushing massively because
they want to show everyone they can make
SURSHUHQJLQHV ́KHDGGV³$QGWKHUHOLDELOLW\
[in testing] has been good so far. For me, the