Gasly yet to reach Q3 and has best finish of eighth in first two races with Red Bull; Watch Chinese GP live on Sky F1 this weekend
Tuesday 9 April 2019 11:51, UK
Pierre Gasly has admitted his start to life at Red Bull has been "difficult" but driver and team are confident he will find a breakthrough with their 2019 car.
The Frenchman heads into this third race weekend for Red Bull aiming to improve on his opening two appearances in Australia and Bahrain, when he missed out on the top 10 in qualifying and registered a best race finish of eighth.
"I will work with the team and try to improve what I can on my side because for sure there are areas where I can do better," Gasly told Sky Sports F1's Rachel Brookes.
"And I will try to work with them to see what we can do with the set-up, to make me feel more confident to push and being able to attack, because at the moment it's quite difficult."
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So where are Gasly and Red Bull struggling?
Although pleased by the early performance of their new Honda engine, Red Bull have admitted they have work to do on their RB15.
"On the chassis side, I'll be brutally honest we haven't got the car as good as we'd like it to be at the moment," said technical chief Adrian Newey to the In the Pink podcast.
Christian Horner, Red Bull's team principal, said in Bahrain: "It's a tricky car at the moment.
"Our operating window looks quite narrow and Max is coping extremely well. It's been harder for Pierre, but that will come I'm sure."
Gasly, who graduated from Toro Rosso after an impressive debut F1 season, believes he remains in an acclimatisation process.
"The feeling you have at the front when you turn the wheel, it doesn't respond as you want," he said.
"And especially the traction, all the time on power I get a lot of wheelspin and not really a strong support from the rear. There are some things for sure where I need to adapt, because last year I had a different car and for sure there are things I need to change.
"I will work on it and hopefully with the team we will find direction to make it feel a bit more suitable for my driving."
Red Bull also believe Gasly will have taken confidence from his race-day performance in Bahrain, when he went from 13th from eighth despite the team struggling with tyres all weekend.
"It was important for Pierre to have a strong race and he did that," said Horner.
"Some of his overtaking, particularly on Perez, was very impressive. His pace in clear air, particularly in the second half of the race, was strong so I think he'll have taken a lot of confidence out of that.
"Once he starts qualifying further up the grid then life will get a lot easier."
Watch the Chinese GP, F1's 1,000th race, live on Sky Sports F1 on April 12-14. Sky Sports is the home of live and exclusive F1. Find out more here to watch the 2019 season live
