Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says it “wouldn’t make sense” for Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly to swap seats again, referring to AlphaTauri as a “sister team rather than a junior team.”
Red Bull promoted Gasly to the senior team for 2019 after Daniel Ricciardo’s exit while Albon stepped up to Formula 1 with Toro Rosso.
Gasly’s early 2019 struggled prompted Red Bull to promote Albon to race alongside Max Verstappen.
Gasly took a shock victory for the rebranded AlphaTauri squad at the Italian Grand Prix and is only five points behind Albon in the standings.
The Frenchman suggested he would be receptive to a second opportunity at Red Bull, if the situation arose, but Horner says there is no intention of swapping the drivers once more.
“Look I think Pierre has done a fantastic job,” said Horner ahead of the Tuscan Grand Prix.
“Since taking the step back to AlphaTauri he has found his confidence, driving incredibly well, AlphaTauri are doing a great job with him, it’s good to see that it’s working out for him.
“I think as far as Red Bull Racing seats are concerned we’re focused on Alex Albon, we want to try and give him the best opportunity to retain that seat.
“We have some issues we are working on with the car, I think that it wouldn’t make sense to switch the drivers back.”
Horner also added that Red Bull now considers AlphaTauri as “a sister team rather than a junior team” following its rebranding for 2020.
“[AlphaTauri boss] Franz [Tost] is happy with Pierre, the final decision will be made later in the year but there’s no push from our side to reverse the situation.
“We want to address some of the issues we have with the RB16, which we’re getting on top of, and we’ll go from there.”
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