I have been thinking about this a lot, so let me throw these thoughts into the mix and see if anyone thinks the same.
As you say, Gasly could end up costing RB second place in the constructors championship. RB's past record is fairly ruthless when it comes to dropping drivers mid season, so who would they replace him with ? None of the current crop of drivers in the RB stable are really up to the job yet.
Who, therefore is available until the end of the season. The answer seems obvious to me, Alonso. After the Indy 500 shambles that Maclaren dished up for Alonso, he cut all future commitments with them so is certainly free for a drive for the rest of the season.
Pulling in Alonso beside Max would also give added team confidence, because both drivers working as a team are more than capable of putting RB into second place. Alonso said last month that he wouldn't rule out returning to F1, RB would be stupid not to at least talk with Alonso with a view to taking them to the end of this season at least.

 

"Again"? Kvyat did brilliantly at Red Bull. Beating Riccardo in his first season and with the only Red Bull podium of the season at the point he was ousted. The time he did badly was after he was rudely demoted despite his performance.

 

This is the same video I linked earlier, even Hamilton suggests that Gasly's seat is available when discussing Alonso lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekETTDugOks&t=29m52s

 

Dany is clearly more capable than Gasly, he's been there before, performed better than Gasly currently is and he still got the chop. Dany in Gasly out it has to be.

Bottas is just deluded, from RF:

Apparently he locked up in turn 1 because he was on the outside, when he really wasn't, because Lewis was, and his 'it was just a bit messy' in turn 2 was him locking up again on the inside while Lewis out braked him on the outside. And he's completely forgotten he threw the last race away by binning it. Really starting to dislike Bottas tbh, he's been talking a lot of talk this year especially, but he's a just boring personality and a boring driver and I can't even remember once being thrilled or excited about anything he's ever done.

 

The only issue is a young gun showing him up again.....

 

I was going to say the same. All the Finns in F1 have been like that, Keke Rosberg, Lehto, Salo, Raikkonen, Hakkinen; all quiet unassuming guys with sporadic bouts of pace.

 

Yes agreed But at least Mika and Kimi gave us some thrilling racing, Bottas never has.

 

And some of the comments he has made regarding RBRs current engine supplier

 

JJ Lehto driving the McLaren F1 GTR in the 1995 Le Mans was legendary. That stint through the night in rain.

 

The Mercedes Hungary debrief by James Vowles was nice and humble. I especially enjoyed the last question directed specifically to him regarding his champagne celebrations on the podium.

 

I really like his calmness. You get the feeling he’d deliver an update on a zombie apocalypse in the same manner.

 

Vettel is part of Red Bull folklore and has influence; winding up and crashing into a 4 time RB WDC was not a wise move; it ultimately cost Danill his drive.

If promotion, back to the works team came about, I don't doubt Danill will take in a heartbeat. Riccardo took the money, although, having been the top dog whilst beating Vettel - it was short lived when Verstappen arrived. The focus/politics of the team shifted - hung out to dry.

Danill has proven his resolve and if promoted to the factory works team, talk about gonads - make or break. A formidable obstacle, Verstappen is #1, Danill has to out perform and swing the team to back you...

Irrespective, if RBR have two strong compatible drivers - Ferrari and Mercedes will have a serious problem.

 

RB won't expect him to out perform Max, they'll expect him to be there with him which he surely can. Indeed, had Gasly done a better job they'd be right in the mix now, which is why I think they'll drop him in the coming weeks.

 

Finns aren’t boring when they’ve had a couple of drinks.

 

https://beyondtheflag.com/2019/08/09/formula-1-kimi-raikkonen-hasnt-read-alfa-romeo-racing-contract/

 

I'd be amazed in any of the drivers have actually read their contracts. I'd imagine they leave it to their agents/lawyers to summarise for them and then argue whatever points they want.

 

Vettel negotiates his own contracts without using an agent.

 

I can understand that though as this is the same guy that wanted to check the tyre pressures on the Top Gear car when he did his lap.

 

What an amazing narrative you've built there.

First off, Kvyat being demoted had absolutely nothing to do with Vettel. He was out before Russia, the decision was made, the paddock knew before Russia, it was his last race regardless. Verstappen had a clause in his contract that an offer from another team meant he could leave unless he was in the senior team. RBR couldn't lose Verstappen, I'm one of the bigger believes in Kvyat's ability but he's not Verstappen's level. Someone had to go and F1 isn't just about speed, it's about marketing, markets, appeal. Ricciardo beat out Kvyat in that sense in reality though I think Kvyat had the potential to be faster than Ricciardo long term. Russia isn't a big market for F1 despite the race and Ricciardo was much more popular around the world than Kvyat, who is funny but has a very dry Russian sense of humour and wasn't as widely liked.

As for Ricciardo being hung out to dry, nonsense. If this were Ferrari 1/2 situations then Ricciardo would have had his engine turned down so Max could get the youngest pole in Mexico, or sent out too late to do a lap, or forgotten his fuel, etc. They never once gave him a worse strategy(on purpose, at times they split strategy and it worked out better for Ricciardo than Max as many times as it favoured Max). Literally one thing he was ever asked to do or he could ever point to as a reason they favoured Max was asking him not to attack Max to the press after Baku, and every single team would ask every driver to do that regardless. Trashing your team mate in front of the press is just a bad thing for the team.

RBRs focus is on winning, nothing more, they haven't been in a title fight since Ricciardo was at RBR, the only thing they cared about was maximising podiums and getting the best result regardless of drivers. In a real title fight they'll favour whoever has a reasonable points lead and in reality it will be Max because he's considerably faster than Ricciardo, but if you get a Max crash/failure early season and Ricciardo in a tight fight with Hamilton and a real shot at the title they'd likely favour Ricciardo because they aren't stupid.

What you end up with though is correct, two strong drivers and Ferrari this year and potentially Merc in the next couple of years if Honda keep up their game will be real threat finally in this era of hybrid engines.

Though there are rumours that Merc are working on a 2020 engine that is the biggest change since 2014, which isn't surprising considering they've had a lead so had no real reason to risk it on a huge upgrade but since Ferrari are now ahead and Honda are almost caught up, they need to start upping their engine game again.