No room at the Red Bull Racing Inn

For a fifth successive season, the GP2 title winner has been unable to make the step up into Formula One.

The feeder series has seen some great drivers make their mark in modern day Formula One.

Three time Formula One World Champion Lewis Hamilton won the 2006 GP2 title.

Twelve months before that and 2016 Formula One World Champion Nico Rosberg had claimed the GP2 title.

Timo Glock, Nico Hülkenberg, Pastor Maldonado, Romain Grosjean, Jolyon Palmer and Stoffel Vandoorne have all in the past won the GP2 title and made the move into Formula One at a later date.

Success is also seen with drivers who have finished either as runner-up or third in the series with Heikki Kovalainen, Scott Speed, Nelson Piquet Jr, Bruno Senna, Vitaly Petrov, Sergio Perez, Jules Bianchi, Esteban Gutiérrez and Felipe Nasr also all making the move from GP2 to Formula One.

But 2016 winner Pierre Gasly will have to wait to make his move into Formula One.

He had been the odds on favourite for a seat at Toro Rosso in 2017 following the fall from grace for Daniil Kvyat, firstly losing his seat at Red Bull Racing having been replaced by Max Verstappen and then struggling for form at the sister team.

But after he was confirmed alongside Carlos Sainz and Verstappen and Ricciardo locked in at Red Bull Racing, there is no room for Gasly amongst the Red Bull stable.

Instead he finds himself unable to defend his title in GP2 as that is prevented by the regulations and will now look to drive in Japan’s Super Formula series.

‘we are looking at different series. What Stoffel Vandoorne did in Super Formula was a good choice, so we are looking at it as well. Hopefully I will know what I’m going to do in 2017 quite soon.’ he told Sky Sports.

On the disappointment of not getting a drive with Toro Rosso in Formula One he said: ‘There was an opportunity and unfortunately it didn’t happen. Sometimes it looked like I was in the right place at the wrong time, unfortunately.