GP2 champion Gasly heads to Japan

Reigning GP2 champion will keep his skills sharp this year in Japan's top tier of open wheel racing.

Just like his GP2 champion predecessor Stoffel Vandoorne last year, it has emerged that Frenchman Gasly, 20, will race in the Super Formula series in 2017.

Red Bull junior Gasly had hoped to move into F1 this year with Toro Rosso, and now says of his forthcoming Japanese foray: "It's all going to be very different.

"I have no experience with the car or the tracks and I know that the Japanese culture, philosophy, way of working, just about everything is different.

"It's a fantastic new challenge and I love that," Gasly added.

Days ago, Red Bull mogul Dietrich Mateschitz told the Austrian newspaper Salzburger Nachrichten that he has confidence in his energy drink company's full F1 lineup.

"Pierre Gasly will work as a junior substitute driver and do a lot in the simulator," said the billionaire.

(GMM)