Gasly pines for Red Bull? 'Difficult not fighting for wins'

Pierre Gasly says he has struggled to adapt to not fighting for race wins and title since joining Formula 1, although a seemingly imminent switch to Red Bull could remedy the Frenchman's concerns. After Carlos Sainz Jr was confirmed as a McLaren driver on Thursday, Gasly's path is clear to replace Daniel Ricciardo.

The Frenchman now has no real rivals for the seat at Red Bull, which he will take after impressing for Toro Rosso in 2018, scoring points in Bahrain, Monaco and Hungary with the Honda power unit.

Gasly built a fine reputation in other categories, winning the 2016 GP2 title and going close to adding a Super Formula title to his collection last year, making the fight for minor scoring positions a tough transition for the 22-year-old.

"One thing which is difficult in F1 when you come for lower series is in lower series you always fight for podiums, victories, championships," he is quoted by RaceFans.

"Every weekend you come you know you're going to fight for pole position.

"Like in Silverstone I was really managed to put everything in my lap, extract everything, and I was 14th.

"As a driver it's really difficult to be happy with 14th because at the end of the day you look at the paper and where you are.

"The lap was really clean and probably one of my best in F1 but that's the way it is in F1. The package you have really decides the position you're going to be in.

"Sometimes it pushes you to try to over-deliver to balance the deficit of performance. You have [to] just accept that sometimes you have a bit less performance and try to be more consistent with the package we have."