Before the Daniil Kvyat saga, there was Christian Klien, who was dropped just three races from the end of 2006 in his second season with Red Bull.

Just a year earlier, the Austrian has 'shared' the second seat alongside David Coulthard with Antonio Liuzzi, before being given the drive full-time - or at least until China 2006 when he was dumped in favour of test driver, Robert Doornbos.

At Toro Rosso the Italian team had its own problems, with Scott Speed dropped in favour of (BMW's) Sebastian Vettel, Sebastien Bourdais dropped in favour of Jaime Alguersuari and various other comings and goings.

Did we mention Daniil Kvyat?

On Monday, Pierre Gasly joined that long line of drivers for whom patience had run out, the Frenchman dropped in favour of rookie Alexander Albon.

Other than the briefest of press releases Red Bull has said nothing, while Toro Rosso hasn't even issued a press release.

However, talking to Auto Bild, Red Bull's lord high executioner, Helmut Marko revealed why time had finally run out for the Frenchman.

"Gasly has problems in traffic, he loses places and he can't overtake," said the Austrian. "So we had to react and give Albon a chance until the end of the season.

"Gasly takes his place at Toro Rosso and then we see who will be driving next year next to Max," he added.

While Albon has impressed from the outset, there is widespread belief that the move up to Red Bull comes too early in his career, a situation not helped by the fact that his benchmark is arguably the best driver on the grid at present and the fact that his team is not known for its patience and understanding.

Marko also admits that Red Bull "underestimated" the progress Honda would make this season, its first full season in partnership with the Austrian team.

"We built a car with too little downforce," he said. "We underestimated the progression of our new engine partner.

"They delivered more power than we thought," he admitted. "That's why we first wanted to compensate for the missing power with a chassis that is very aerodynamically efficient, but we corrected that.

"In the last races, we were almost equal to Mercedes. We definitely caught up with Ferrari. I think we'll be competitive on any kind of track in the second half of the season."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Rock Doc, 16/08/2019 21:08

"I'm happy and sad for Albon. Seems like a nice guy and has shown some real promise.I was hoping he would get picked up somewhere else to get out of the Red Bull treadmill, but I guess it's sink or swim now.

Max is on fire at the moment and anyone would have a tough time against him."

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2. Posted by TokyoAussie, 15/08/2019 4:20

"It is my long-held belief that no entity should be in control of 2 teams. My view has not changed."

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3. Posted by USA1, 15/08/2019 0:41

"Red Bull did what it had to do, let’s not forget F1 is a business and top teams need to be on top to make their money’s worth, Pierre was struggling to much with teams he shouldn’t been fighting with, his job was to fight Ferrari and Mercedes, its a doggy dog world out there!
I wish Albon or whoever will get the seat next to Max lots of luck and hopefully you can keep up with Maximilian!"

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4. Posted by kdxrider, 14/08/2019 22:16

"I think if I was Christian Horner, I'd be handing in my resignation about now -----
The times Marko has pulled this stunt and gone over his head, is too many to mention"

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5. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 14/08/2019 15:46

""Gasly has problems in traffic, he loses places and he can't overtake," so how come he ended up in F1?"

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6. Posted by stackvideo, 14/08/2019 13:55

"Just watch out you don't get your toes caught in the bottom of the revolving door at Red Bull Alexander Albon."

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7. Posted by klmn, 14/08/2019 13:15

"Good RedBull give a chance to so many drivers.
But ofcourse it is no wellfare."

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