"Clearly no one is happy and I'm the first one not happy with the performance," Gasly says; Kvyat keeping mind off Red Bull rumours
Thursday 27 June 2019 17:47, UK
Pierre Gasly insists he is not worried about potentially losing his Red Bull seat but admits that he must improve and get closer to Max Verstappen.
Gasly arrived this season at Red Bull as Daniel Ricciardo's highly-rated replacement but is currently being dominated by Verstappen in qualifying and races, and finished a lowly 10th at the French GP last weekend.
Red Bull have a ruthless F1 reputation when it comes to casting drivers aside who aren't performing, and paddock rumours have been swirling in recent weeks about the formerly-axed Daniil Kvyat getting another recall.
But asked if he was concerned, Gasly told reporters in Austria: "No not really. At the moment clearly no one is happy and I'm the first one not happy with the performance.
"As a racing driver I feel really far from showing the potential that we have and that's not pleasant."
The Frenchman added to Sky F1: "It's never easy, but you need to find the solution. At the moment there are a couple of things we can do better, my side as well, that I can do to suit that car better. It's all about working together."
Gasly has a best finish of fifth this season and is 63 points behind Verstappen in the drivers' standings. He has finished ahead of his team-mate once in qualifying - but that was in Canada when Q2 finished early and knocked Verstappen out - and hasn't beaten the Dutchman in a race.
"If you're up against the best drivers in the world in the best cars in the world you have to have everything at 105 per cent," Gasly explained. "You cannot leave one per cent on the table, everything has to be perfect.
"There are several areas where I can improve and we are all working towards the same goal and same direction.
"Is it going to pay off this weekend, two weekends or three weekends? I don't know. But for sure we want to perform better and be as fast as possible."
Gasly also says he had to change his driving style to get to grips with the Red Bull-Honda, and told Sky F1: "There are a few things you can do in the cockpit to go around it and I still have a few things to do better.
"We are working because no one is happy with the result and I'm the first one not being happy because [he] can't extract the full potential for different reasons.
"But we are all pushing in the same direction and hopefully it's going to pay off this weekend and in the next few races."
Kvyat not focusing on rumours
Kvyat knows about Red Bull's approach to under-performing drivers more than most, having been dropped to give Verstappen a seat in 2016, but the Russian has enjoyed a comeback of sorts after returning to the sport with junior team Toro Rosso this year.
But the Russian is still keeping his mind on his current role, rather than focusing on driver market chatter.
"I just do my job," Kvyat said ahead of the Austrian GP. "I'm the driver and I drive the car. Right now I drive a Formula 1 car for Toro Rosso and that's the job they hired me to do right now. If things will change that we will react accordingly."
Asked if he can relate to Gasly's situation, Kvyat continued: "Things were different for me back then. It's hard to say how every driver feels different situations... it's very hard to compare these kind of things.
"At that time I know it wasn't an easy period, but in F1 it can never be too easy for anybody. There was many things going on but I also had some good races at that time. For myself, I know I am different person to that period."
The whole Austrian GP weekend is live only on Sky Sports F1. Sunday's race begins at 2.10pm with build-up from 12.30pm. Find out more about Formula 1 on Sky Sports
