F1 Rumour: Pierre Gasly Could Replace Lewis Hamilton At Mercedes
A journalist from the Mirror, Daniel Moxon, has stated that the Mercedes team is looking to replace 7-time champion Lewis Hamilton with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly. While I must stress that this should be taken with a pinch of salt, it’s an interesting idea especially after watching Gasly’s exquisite performance during the Monaco Grand Prix.
On top of this, Gasly’s performance was impressive at the start of his F1 career as he raced alongside Carlos Sainz and Brendon Hartley under Toro Rosso (now AlphaTauri). Eventually, his teammate-beating performance earnt him a place at Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen, but this didn’t last long. Eventually, it became apparent that Gasly wasn’t going to earn himself a podium, and chief Christian Horner admitted that his move to the team was “premature”.
This saw him move back to Toro Rosso, but now Gasly’s contract comes to an end at the end of 2022 so is looking for somewhere to move. According to Moxon, Mercedes could be the answer with him expecting Lewis Hamilton to retire at the end of this year allowing Russell to be the team leader alongside a talented Gasly.
Moxon admits that it would be a “shock”, but expects the Briton to retire due to poor performance from the team compared to Red Bull and Ferrari.
Other options include McLaren as Daniel Ricciardo’s future with the team looks questionable.
Currently, Hamilton sits 34 points behind George Russell who is fourth in the Driver Standings. Hamilton sits sixth and Gasly is 14th.
