Is Gasly praying for a Ricciardo Red Bull exit?

Keen and bright-eyed as a Labrador pup, Pierre Gasly bounds up the stairs of the Red Bull Energy Station. He's eager not to be late for his appointment with the readers of F1 Racing, whose questions await.

It's a promising sign. Plenty of young drivers enter Formula 1 ready to play the big 'I am' before achieving anything. Not this one, who presents himself as smart, quick-witted and composed. All are attributes that will serve him well as a Red Bull junior, for this team's racing overlord, Dr Helmut Marko, brooks no compromise in his search for talents that fit his template. Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo were best exemplars of his ideal: as quick with their wits as they are on track, self-possessed and capable of elbows-out circuit-smarts in pursuit of a big result.

Those who don't quite cut it are quickly found out: Jean-Eric Vergne, a terrific racer, was a little too surly for his own good and never quite right there in qualifying; Daniil Kvyat - bright, fast and promising - lost the plot when measured against wunderkind team-mate Max Verstappen. Then he started hitting walls. Game over.

Gasly, then, is interesting. Parachuted in to Toro Rosso at the end of 2017 to replace the struggling Kvyat, he endured an engine-troubled start to '18 in Australia before - boom! - fourth in Bahrain. That got the F1 paddock's attention. It was quite the opening to his first full F1 year and although it's too early to predict how his career will develop, he has already marked himself out as one to watch. Let's find out more...

Your big result so far was fourth place in Bahrain. How would you describe that race and do you think you can get more results like that? Daniele Gaglio, UK

That was only my seventh race in Formula 1 and to get P4 was just amazing, especially because we didn't expect to achieve it in our second race with Honda. The feeling was crazy! I had my best qualifying as well: Q3, qualified sixth and started P5.

F1 Racing: Is there more to come?

PG: It will be difficult to reproduce it, but over a 21-race season you always have one or two opportunities when things come your way. Our target, especially as a midfield team, is to make sure we are there when that happens. Maybe in a race with tricky conditions in the wet, like Brazil, we can take that opportunity.

Have you been surprised at how good the Honda engine is? Steve Popple, USA

Yes, actually. Reliability has been good. We had that problem in Melbourne, which was a shame because testing went so well - but apart from that, reliability has been good and performance has improved as well. I like the way Honda work. It's great, you can feel that they are doing all the things they can to improve. We still have a deficit but they are doing everything they can to make it better. So we are happy and feel we can keep improving.

The incident with Brendon in qualifying for the Azerbaijan GP - was that a scary moment for you? Dan Shaw, UK

Yes! Everything happens so fast in these situations. We checked on the data and it was something like 189mph. At that speed you're doing so many metres per second. When I saw Brendon had stopped he was actually in the middle of the track and you have to make a decision really quickly - you don't have time to think. It's more like instinct.

I decided to go left, and Brendon didn't see me and also went left! And when I went right, he went right as well. So I had to turn a second time to the right. In my mind I was gone. I was thinking: 'I'll clip his wheel and fly. I'm a goner, I'll crash.' I managed to avoid him, but the peak of adrenaline [Gasly makes a noise like a faster Kimi Raikkonen 'Bwoah']... my heartbeat was so high.

F1R: You were actually thinking what could happen?

PG: Yes. It's funny, because the moment goes so fast, but you have thousands of thoughts at the same time. I had a road-car accident with my parents two years ago at Silverstone. It was a bad crash and it felt the same. It goes so fast but your brain has all these thoughts. In Azerbaijan, afterwards I was just disappointed that I didn't do a lap good enough for Q2. It was a shame, but it was a massive peak of adrenaline.

You had a bit of a dispute with Kevin Magnussen in Baku. Do you think he's a dangerous driver? John Nicholls, UK

[A long pause - probably as a self-censorship filter kicks in.] I don't think he's dangerous; it's all about 'aggressivity'. You need to be aggressive, but we need to stay fair. It's exciting to be so close, wheel-to-wheel, but you need to leave enough space. He's just aggressive, sometimes a bit too much. And at Baku it was a bit too much.

Apologies for asking another crash question, but you and Brendon had a coming-together in China as well. Did you speak about that afterwards with him? How was it? Peter Selecky, Slovakia

Yeah, we spoke after the race. We weren't even fighting - we were supposed to swap positions and the team told me he would do it at the end of the straight and told him as well. Then he wanted to do it after the corner. I'd already committed when he'd turned in and it was too late - I couldn't avoid him. He said: "I wanted to do it after," and I said I expected him to leave the space because the team told him to. We were fine after that.

Do you feel that your year racing in Super Formula in Japan helped you to make a good transition into Formula 1 full-time? Brian Kenney, USA

It was a great experience - a different series, lots of downforce, different tyres. I didn't know any tracks so I had to learn them all during the season. I tried to find a way to make the best out of it. Only a few people spoke English, so that was tricky and everything is very different to Europe. But it was a good experience, not only on the driving side but also on the human side. Japan is a mega-amazing country in terms of culture.

Did you learn any Japanese out there? Breffni McCarthy, Ireland

Some basic stuff like konnichiwa [hello/how are you], arigatou [thank you], misoshiru [miso soup] and some other things.

F1R: So you can do the essentials, say hello, thank you and order some food...

PG: Yeah...

What's the hardest thing about F1? Curtis Paine, UK

[Laughs.] It's probably dealing with media! Media and journalists just see us in specific conditions, as drivers at the track, but they don't know us personally. So I think it's easy to misjudge us, especially when there's only a short time during the weekend to get to know someone.

So for me, as someone who speaks sometimes in English, sometimes in French, sometimes I want to say things in a way that is probably not exactly the same when I use English words. So I have to be careful and not be misunderstood. That's not easy when you have so many media commitments in F1.

Do you pray for Danny Ricciardo to move to another team? Tomek Latkiewicz, Poland

[Big laugh.] For sure if he wants to move... For me, as a Red Bull driver my target is to be at Red Bull Racing because that is the top team. My goal is to fight for championships and I want to have a car that lets me fight for championships. I don't know what's going to happen. I think we will announce soon. As for Daniel... it's difficult because he's a great guy but of course in my career I just want to be in a position to fight for championships. That's the main thing.

Who is your French racing hero? Alain Prost, Jean Alesi or someone else altogether? Alejandro Schneider, Chile

Actually, it's both of them! Alain Prost is a legend, but then so is Jean. Jean was my captain in the French team in single-seaters. I know them both very well and they're both legends.

Is it true that you and Esteban Ocon used to be friends, but have fallen out? Brendan Thomas, Caracas

Yeah, it's a long story that we don't have enough time to talk about now. We were really good friends and now, unfortunately, we don't get on so well. I tried to keep the relationship good but it wasn't possible and now we just respect each other. But we're not really friends.

Do you follow any other sports closely? Pam Berryman, UK

Well football, yes, very closely. I went to the Barcelona vs Villarreal game just before the Spanish GP and I'm a massive fan of PSG [French football team Paris Saint-Germain]. Whenever I'm in France I try to go to the stadium. I am close friends with Rabiot [Andrien Rabiot, the French international midfielder who plays for PSG] and he invites me so I can go and support the team. I like tennis as well and go to Roland-Garros [for the French Open] every year. And I play a bit - but not well. I like golf, too - I don't follow it, but I play. And boxing. And I play badminton and squash. I'm sports-mad and try to do everything!

F1R: You know Alain Prost was going to be a professional footballer before he became a racing driver? He was a young pro but got an injury and did some karting to avoid getting bored and that's how he got into F1.

PG: No way! I'll have to ask him about that.