The ax fell for French F1 driver Pierre Gasly, who lost his seat at Red Bull. He will be demoted to the sister team Toro Rosso at the next Belgian Grand Prix.
Insufficient results
Pierre Gasly, 23, had been promoted from Toro Rosso to Red Bull for this season but his results remained well below those of his teammate Max Verstappen. This prevents Red Bull from scoring valuable points in the Constructors' Championship, where it is currently third at 244 points behind Mercedes (438) and Ferrari (288) before the Spa race on 1 September.
The young Normand is only in sixth place in the drivers standings with 63 points, while Verstappen has 181, after twelve races and at nine of the term. His best result was a fourth place finish at the British Grand Prix when his teammate won won two events.
Replaced by Alexander Albon
"Red Bull is able to have four talented drivers under contract and can rotate between Aston Martin, Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso, and the team will use the next nine races to evaluate Alexander Albon's performance in order to to make a proper decision on who will drive with Max in 2020, "said the British-Austrian team in a statement.
Albon, 23, is a British-Thai rider who runs a Thai license. He started in F1 this year at Toro Rosso and is currently in 15th place in the championship with sixteen points, his best result having been a sixth place in Germany. But he was impressed by his maturity and speed while Gasly failed, despite several calls from Red Bull and his manager of the pilot Helmut Marko, to pass the top gear.
Ironically, his teammate at Toro Rosso will be the Russian Daniil Kvyat who had experienced the same mishap in 2016, to make room for a Max Verstappen gnawing its brakes in the sister team. His descent into hell had not stopped there since he was then fired from Toro Rosso in September 2017 to make room for ... Pierre Gasly, before returning for this season.