4
Pierre Gasly says that he needs a better direction in terms of set-up from his new Red Bull team after a disappointing start to the season.
This bad start has been blamed on the Frenchman struggling with the handling of his RB15.
He suffered from a couple of crashes in pre-season testing, and endured a frustrating opening weekend in Australia when bad luck in qualifying meant that he started from 17th on the grid and went on to finish in 11th.
"I need to find some direction with the set-up and see how the engineers can help me to make it feel more suitable to my driving," Gasly told Autosport.
"And also see what I can improve in terms of driving style. I still feel like I cannot really do what I want inside the car. It's just the fact that at the moment I just feel that I cannot really push, and the car doesn't react as I would expect.
"There is more potential, but we need see how we can unlock it."
Despite earning his first points of the year last weekend in Bahrain, it was still a poor performance compared to his teammate Max Verstappen. Verstappen finished in 4th, with Gasly in 8th.
"For sure I'm not satisfied," he said. "I think there are some positives, but we are not where we want to be, and not where I want to be for sure.
"The feeling [in qualifying] was quite difficult with the car, and it was quite similar [in the race] as well. It's time to work with the guys, see what I can change, and adapt my driving to this car, which is pretty difficult and unpredictable."
Christian Horner believes that Gasly's first points finish will be a confidence boost, and that he impressed the team in Bahrain.
"It was important for Pierre to have a strong race and he did that," said Horner.
"I thought some of his overtaking, particularly on [Sergio] Perez, was very impressive. His pace in clear air, particularly in the second half of the race, was strong.
"He will have taken a lot of confidence out of that. Once he starts qualifying further up the grid, life will get a lot easier for him.
"He raced competitively, he raced hard, he had to overtake a few cars. He's been competitive in the second half of the race. He can take a lot out of this weekend and carry that into future races."
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
3 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (4)
Login to replyRogerF1
Posts: 501
Says it all for me!
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Even with setup difficulties, the fact thst the STRs could with confidence battle him both in Melbourne and Bahrain is a worrying sign for him. Had it been Max ro Ric, Dr Doom would likely not have allowed STR to put their B (for B team) into battle. I am very sure he allowed these duels to go on, even if they slowed Gasly further.
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
I agree 100% and actually respect RB for it. It's a weird place to be when I'm praising Helmut Marko. But let that highlight the peculiarity of this situation
f1ski
Posts: 726
Perhaps we don't know the whole story like Gasly was told not to push for absolute speed but to drive laps and he was going all out and crashed
maybe he hasn't followed direction and this is Helmuts way to drive the lesson home