Red Bull: Gasly’s year in Japan "essential" to make him F1 ready

Despite the French driver winning the GP2 Series in 2016, Red Bull chiefs were not totally convinced about him – so elected to fund him for a season in Japan rather than find him a seat on the grand prix grid.

After delivering some impressive race wins, and coming close to winning the championship, Marko reflects on Gasly's campaign there as a vital step in preparing him for F1 with Toro Rosso.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Marko said: "Gasly won the GP2-series in his second year, he had a bit of bad luck but he also made mistakes. He matured in Japan, which was absolutely essential.

"He had to learn to care for himself, which was possible there as nobody spoke his language. He had to get his way and he actually managed. At the end of the day he didn't win the championship because of this strange storm, but he managed to get his team to the top. He was an absolute winner.

"It was the right decision to give him the time. Also Brendon Hartley has improved his character, now he has the experience. We expect both drivers to be in the points regularly in 2018."

Off-track growth

Gasly himself has admitted that one of the biggest areas of personal progress for him last year was in toughening him up – because of everything thrown at him by racing alone in Japan.

"In a way it made me really much stronger mentally than I was in the past, and from all the experiences for me there were no bad ones," he said.

"You always learn something from it. If it's good or bad, there are always things to take with you. It's been a long trip, but with a lot of good experiences. And useful for me."

Lack of running

Toro Rosso has elected to take two relatively inexperienced drivers for 2018, after feeling that Gasly and Hartley did good enough jobs during their Toro Rosso debuts last year.

But Marko thinks that the poor run of reliability problems that both suffered meant it was too difficult to pick out which had made the strongest impression.

"It's impossible to say because of the conditions," added Marko. "Toro Rosso had so many engine problems. Both of the drivers were hardly able to drive.

"During a whole race weekend, Gasly hardly did 30 laps, including free practice. With Hartley it was similar, but he also had this dual burden [of WEC and F1]. He was driving a different car every weekend. We will only see the real potential in 2018."