Norwegian racer in line to replace Pierre Gasly after ‘English media unleashed a sh*tstorm’

Pierre Gasly could leave Scuderia AlphaTauri at the end of 2023.

Pierre Gasly’s future at Scuderia AlphaTauri is looking very uncertain after 2023, with Red Bull Racing chief advisor Dr Helmut Marko stating that Gasly is “free to go” at the end of next season.

The Frenchman has long wanted a return to Red Bull, who famously dropped him halfway through the 2019 season for Alex Albon.

This looks set to never happen, with Red Bull still unsure over whether the French driver has what it takes to drive for the team again.

However, Red Bull’s and AlphaTauri’s issue is who to replace Gasly with when he decides to leave the Red Bull family.

The next in line was Formula 2 driver Juri Vips; however, following on from his racial slur whilst streaming popular video-game ‘Call of Duty’ on Twitch, he’s been dropped as a Red Bull Junior driver.

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Vips had driven for Red Bull as recently as the Spanish Grand Prix, where he drove the RB18 in FP1 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Incredibly, Marko has blamed the English media for Vips being sacked by Red Bull, with the top advisor seemingly believing there was no need to drop the Estonian driver.

“The English media unleashed such a sh*tstorm that Red Bull Racing had no choice but to remove him from office,” he told Motorsport.com.

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“I personally think he is 21 years old and has apologised.”

Vips released an official apology on Instagram after the incident.

Marko went on to explain what frustrated him the most about the entire Vips situation was that it happened whilst playing a video-game, something he labelled as “stupid”.

“What bothers me is that it happened during a stupid video game because they have nothing better to do in the afternoon.

“I don’t understand how you can do that for more than two minutes, but hey, that’s the youth. I can’t do anything with it. Max does it too with sim racing.”

Whilst Red Bull dropped Vips, the 21-year-old wasn’t sacked by F2 team Hitech Grand Prix, with team principal Oliver Oakes insisting on giving him a second chance.

Oakes was similarly frustrated that Vips was playing a video-game instead of doing something “more beneficial”.

“I don’t know why he was streaming C.O.D. at that time of day,” he said in an official statement.

“Certainly, there are things that would have been far more beneficial for his career!”

With Vips out of the picture, fellow F2 driver Dennis Hauger who is still a current Red Bull Junior driver, is the hot favourite to replace Gasly.

Hauger is the current F3 World Champion but has struggled getting to grips with F2.

Red Bull have four junior drivers in the championship, with Hauger currently being below them all in the standings.

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Despite this, he appears to be the favourite for a career in F1; however, Marko insists it’s “difficult” to predict the future.

“Dennis Hauger has dominated Formula 3 in an incredible way,” said Marko. “He now has ups and downs in Formula 2, he is not constant. Performance and nothing else is the deciding factor. That is changeable.

“People who we thought could do it suddenly couldn’t do it anymore and vice versa. That is why it is difficult to make predictions.”