Akunob

I can only think that Horner doesn't want an RBR mid-season driver's battle. I can only imagine that Kvyat would have a lot to prove if he were to regain his old seat at RBR and that has the potential to create friction with Max , which may potentially spill over onto the track (contact between both RBR cars) as Kyvat races Max hard over the last 9 races to establish himself. With Albon, a clear pecking order is in place and Albon knows his job is to shoot for 6th place and run interference between Merc/Ferrari for Max's benefit. RBR has a clear #1 and side-kick #2 vs. two dueling drivers. It also sends a nice message to Max, "You are our clear #1" vs. providing him with in-house competition as he mulls his career beyond 2020.

StoogeMoe

Wow, this is pretty drastic at mid-season. Hope Gasly doesn't implode like Kyvat did when he got demoted. Gasly has shown signs of brilliance in the past. But he has also shown signs of being lost.

We'll see if Albon can handle the pressure of being Max's teammate and can keep a closer gap to him in qualifying and the race.

This could be a rotating door to see who can match Max's pace at Red Bull. Next up....Kyvat!!

951and944S

LOL, true.

I don't think Gasly would say he was not treated fairly, a case maybe LeClerc or Bottas might be able to make but he was never a close enough threat to be given an order.

Red Bull being kind of isolated from the silly season with their own driver bench, I doubt this news has any ripple that effects anybody else.

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fatbillybob

Pg& dk should start new clothing line "team castoffs". Dk is doing well. I'm not convinced albon is faster the DK. But I think the other poster is right. Dk would try to prove his way back cause friction with max. Albon will do exactly what the team tells him to do like masa and barrichello.

Akunob

You can add Kimi to “Team Castoffs”...!!

MarcD147

teams don't need a prost and senna on one team.... having a Hamilton and a Bottas works just fine
getting a solid nr2 next to Max that gets the occasional pole/victory but otherwise specializes in taking points from the Merc and Ferrari boys is just perfect. Ricardo was great but figured money was more important than where he starts/finishes races

LuigiVampa

+1

multi21

I agree with this ^^... the clear #1 and clear #2 seems to have worked well over time. When you have two #1s (Prost/Senna, Alonso/Hamilton) things get pretty complicated quickly. Riccardo was in a tough spot last year. He was just 28, but he had a 20 year old teammate with pace and the clear future of Red Bull. Mercedes was locked up and so was Ferrari - what was he supposed to do? McLaren seemed to languish in the back with Williams (my how a year changes things). Reports are that Renault gave Ricciardo $49m per year.... that's generational money and hard to turn down especially if you have no options at top teams. Couple that with the fact he did go to a factory team that promised to spend money (reports today are that Renault has poured about $1b into the program recently), you hope for the best on Sundays, but cash those checks on Monday.

FWIW, Kvyat would have made a good #2. Albon might be over his skis at this point, especially against a killer like Verstappen. Once the .5 to 1.0 second per lap deficits start taking place, it might have done more harm than good to bring him up after just 12 races in F1.

951and944S

Well, seems to me Albon was coming around and just about equal measure of Kvyat.

As a team, you couldn't ask for a more controlled test.

If Kvyat dusts off Gasly, he's history and that means Albon and Kvyat are both better prospects.
If Albon is closer to Max, makes less mistakes and is more consistent, then he's a better call than Gasly.

Barring any adaptation problems either have switching cars but, they are both Honda powered and virtually the same team.

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RSBro

I think it's an easy call when you look at the WCC and where RBR would be with a legit #2 driver behind Max. He's obviously amazing, but with that package the #2 driver should be close and adding to the team point tally, which is where the $$ part of it all comes in, IIRC.
I was hoping for DK, but Albon has been great this season, and it'll be quite the test for the guy. If he excels, it's the right call by Helmut/Christian, and if not, well they just promote DK next year. Can't wait for the second half of the season!

951and944S

You are probably spot on.

There's always the possibility that the car is 3rd tier and that's the best anybody else they plug in may get out of it, a 5th/6th or even lower if luck plays any part in a random Alfa, Mac, etc finish.

Maybe Max is just that good...?

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multi21

This popped up on my feed today and parallels somewhat the circumstances that happened during the last race between Red Bull who was leading and Mercedes who was trailing, ironically, also in Hungary. Keep in mind, they had refueling back then: