Toro Rosso rookie Alexander Albon will replace under-performing Pierre Gasly as Max Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate from the next race in Belgium until the end of the season, the Formula One team announced.
Gasly will go in the other direction, taking British-born Thai driver Albon’s seat at the sister team where the 23-year-old Frenchman started out before being promoted at the end of last year.
The Belgian Grand Prix at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit is on September 1, and is the first race after Formula One’s August break.
“Red Bull are in the unique position of having four talented Formula One drivers under contract who can be rotated between Aston Martin Red Bull Racing and Toro Rosso,” Red Bull said in a statement.
“The team will use the next nine races to evaluate Alex’s performance in order to make an informed decision as to who will drive alongside Max in 2020.”
Verstappen has won two of 12 races this season and is third overall on 181 points while Gasly, the 2016 GP2 (now F2) champion, has struggled with just 63 points.
Gasly had performed well last year at Toro Rosso and moved up to Red Bull when Australian Daniel Ricciardo decided to move to Renault.