Pierre Gasly aims to race in F1 in 2017

Red Bull Racing’s test driver Pierre Gasly has clear goals for the near future of his career. He intends to make the final big step in his career as soon as next year and wants to race for Toro Rosso in 2017.

Gasly stated in an interview with gpupdate.net that he wants to make his dream come true and join Red Bull’s sister team Toro Rosso as racing driver.

The Rouen-born driver started his career in the French F4 in 2011 where he claimed third place. He stepped up to Formula Renault 2.0 the following year which proved to be a stressful season for him. However, in 2013 he went on to win the title for Tech 1 Racing.

He joined the Formula Renault 3.5 field in 2014 where he finished second with eight poles. He also completed six races in GP2 that year. He finished eighth last season.

He is now lying second in the GP2 championship with the same point number as Sergey Sirotkin.

"It was really mixed up at the beginning which made it interesting, I guess, but from our point of view you want to score and have a bit of margin," he is quoted as saying by gpupdate.net.

"It's what we tried to aim for at the last couple of races, to be really consistently in the points – if you want to win the championship, that's how it works.”

Gasly admitted he is aware of the pressure from Red Bull. All his moves are thoroughly observed by Red Bull’s driver manager Helmut Marko.

"I know Helmut is watching all of the GP2 races, he knows when I do well and he knows when I do some mistakes – he's watching everything.

"When I came back from the podium [in Germany] I saw the Red Bull mechanics and they said, 'Great race, it was really good to watch', so I know they are watching – it's quite easy, we're on the same track," concluded the Frenchman.