Gasly: Hamilton in a Williams or Haas would also finish last

Gasly speaking to Hugo Décrypte's Mashup called out the harsh reality that befall drivers who do not have the luxury of racing for a top team: "Today, even if Lewis who is the best driver in F1 history.

"In a Williams or a Haas, he would finish last. It's not even that he would be third or fifth, he would be in 18th or 16th place," added the AlphaTauri driver adamantly, which means any driver including 2021 F1 World Champion Max Verstappen.

This year will be proof of the reality which Gasly is rightfully not afraid to point out, George Russell was a perennial backmarker with the underperforming Williams through the two years he was there.

On the night of the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix, standing in for covid-struck Hamilton, Russell nearly won the race after starting from the front row of the grid. A week later he qualified 18th and battled his way to 15th, a lap behind the leaders.

This year, should the pecking order remain as it was last year, Russell has the chance of winning every race he starts because he is in a Mercedes and no longer in a Williams. The only chance that won't happen is if the new rules really throw the sport a curved ball.

Furthermore, when Nikita Mazepin (yes him!) got a shot at running in the Mercedes during testing in May 2019 he topped the timing screens at the end of the first day. A mere 24 hours later, Russell who had been slowest when the Russian driver ruled day one in Bahrain, hopped into the Mercedes for day two and he too ended the day fastest.

History has it that Gasly did have a chance to show what he had when he replaced Renault-bound Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull. But that only lasted a dozen races as teammate to shooting star Verstappen, the overwhelmed Frenchman was out of his depth, incident-prone, and demotion back to Toro Rosso followed swiftly, and cruelly it was generally felt because his replacement Alex Albon was also destroyed by Max.

Since then Gasly has not wallowed in self-pity, instead, he has made admirable progress as a driver, winning his first F1 race at Monza when he triumphed famously at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix for AlphaTauri. Since then he has grown in stature and made a strong case for a return to Red Bull.

While that seat is for now occupied by veteran Sergio Perez, who did a solid job trying to be Verstappen's teammate but not a slam dunk performance ensuring he is there for the long term. The queue behind for the seat is packed with constantly rising talent.

If such a point is reached, if hypothetically Perez falls out of favour with the senior team, it would be foolish for Red Bull not to reconsider Gasly for another promotion and a final shot at showing what he has against the World Champion in the other Blue car.

Touching on his own personal motivation ahead of the 2022 F1 season, Gasly revealed: "What keeps me going is my desire to win. I have always been very competitive, I am someone who has very clear ideas in terms of objectives and what I want to achieve."

It is more than two years since the pain of the Red Bull demotion, but the scars appear to linger for Gasly: "It was the fact of having felt that I was not given all the weapons to show what I was capable of. Which was very frustrating.

"It was an opportunity I always dreamed of as a 23-year-old, at Red Bull, everything was perfect, but the timing and the position in which I arrived there did not necessarily allow me to show what I was capable of.

"For me, it was difficult, I am a competitor. I found myself in a situation that was complicated. It was a very big challenge. Many people believed that I would never recover from this decision, but the day it was taken, I was immediately turned to the new page.

"With Toro Rosso, I knew that I would have the means to prove what I am capable of," and that is indeed what he has done as his performances at AlphaTauri have him top of the driver pecking order should a big team come knocking, be it Red Bull or not.

While Gasly's words are likely to be misinterpreted by the ignorant, he is stating a fact about F1 reality since its inception as an FIA-regulated sport in 1950, namely that no driver has become a World Champion in a shitbox of a car.

Looking ahead, Gasly will be in action this week at Circuit Barcelona-Catalunya along with Alphatauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda and their rivals, for the first of two three-day 2022 F1 preseason tests starting on Wednesday at the Spanish Grand Prix venue.