Why Red Bull expect imminent Gasly improvement

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes Pierre Gasly will begin to come into his own in the races to come, as the team look to instil confidence in the Frenchman after a tough start to life in the senior outfit.

Gasly was called up to replace Daniel Ricciardo, following the Australian's move to Renault, but has struggled in comparison to team-mate Max Verstappen, finishing behind the Dutchman at every race so far this year.

He started four places ahead in Canada last time out, but still finished behind him come the chequered flag, as well as both Renaults – not a great look for Red Bull having ditched the French manufacturer for Honda in 2019.

"Obviously we're working hard with him and like in any sport confidence is such a big factor, and he's going up against a very tough teammate in Max," Horner told Sky Sports.

"But I thought in Monaco he drove very well, Montreal was a tricky weekend for him. Hopefully now, [at] circuits he knows much better, I think hopefully we'll start to see a bit more progress there as well.

"Of course he's working very closely with his tight engineering team. His race engineer is Rocky [Guillaume Rocquelin] that navigated Sebastian [Vettel] to four consecutive world championships, so he's got a lot of very strong people around him.

"Of course some drivers need an arm around their shoulder, some need a kick up the backside.

Having retired last year on lap one, Gasly will be well aware that the 2019 French Grand Prix is his chance to prove himself on home soil 🇫🇷

But can the Frenchman eclipse Max Verstappen this weekend? 🤔

Join us for qualifying highlights 📺 Saturday 6:30pm on #Channel4 #FrenchGP pic.twitter.com/XyQYMlT7es

— Channel 4 F1® (@C4F1) June 21, 2019

"He's been in a position where he's needed an arm around his shoulder and he's had that and hopefully we'll start to move forward."

Put to Horner that Dr Helmut Marko might have previously grown weary of Gasly's performances already, he joked: "Maybe he's softening in his old age!

"Look, every driver's different and even when we had Sebastian he would need an arm around his shoulder every now and again.

"Drivers work on confidence and we're trying to build that confidence in Pierre.

"We know he can do it, we know he's capable – he wouldn't have won the Formula 2 championship the way he did and done what he did in Japan [if not].

"We've seen his test performances in the car previously so I think if we can get him to a point where he's comfortable and confident the lap times will come."

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