Red Bull Racing will allow Pierre Gasly to race freely against Max Verstappen in 2019, says the team’s motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko.
But they are expected to follow general rules to ensure the team gets the most points, he added.
“Gasly comes as a youngster so it’s very clear that he has to adhere to the rules of Red Bull Racing,” Marko explained.
“It’s easy: Max is much more familiar with the team. Gasly is free to race. He just needs to show performance. They are equal.”
Though the Dutchman is only 21 years old, he has 81 race starts to his name and thus is more experienced than the Frenchman.
Gasly started in the series 26 races ago and was promoted to the senior squad for 2019, to take Daniel Ricciardo’s place.
Speaking in an interview with Sky Sports, Gasly said: “I’m still only going to be in my second season of Formula 1 so there are still a lot of things to learn and I still need to develop myself,”
“We will see how it goes against Max,” he added. “I’ll give him the hardest time I can and then try to develop as much as possible as a driver.”
Marko is excited that Gasly is joining the outfit during its upward trend. Red Bull hopes to take a big step in closing the gap with the top two outfits, thanks to its new collaboration with Honda.
The Milton Keynes team had a fantastic run in the second half of the season as Verstappen scored the highest number of points, except for Lewis Hamilton.
“The second half of the season makes us extremely positive about the development of the chassis,” he said. “Reliability on the Red Bull side has improved.
“Clearly we have the best [chassis],” he added.
The Austrian has given another chance to former Red Bull junior driver Daniil Kvyat to prove himself in F1. The Russian will line up along with Alexander Albon at Toro Rosso.
