The Red Bull F1 junior in exile

By:

Marcus Simmons

Jul 3, 2017, 10:14 AM

After winning the GP2 title, Pierre Gasly had no immediate path into F1, so Red Bull packed him off to Japan to race in Super Formula. The transition is proving tough

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After Stoffel Vandoorne, now Pierre Gasly. Red Bull's French protege has this year become the second successive GP2 champion to be sent to Japan for a season to race in the country's hugely competitive Super Formula series while he awaits an opening in Formula 1.

Just as Vandoorne did in 2016 at the behest of McLaren, which wasn't quite sure that it wanted to pension off Jenson Button yet, Gasly is experiencing a taste of a very different racing culture while he queues up behind the Red Bull/Toro Rosso quartet of Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat.

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Marcus Simmons

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Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.