Pierre Gasly, Red Bull, Bahrain International Circuit, 2019

Gasly: Verstappen is more comfortable with “unpredictable” Red Bull

2019 Bahrain Grand Prix

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Pierre Gasly says he is not as comfortable with his Red Bull’s “unpredictable” handling as his team mate is after failing to reach Q3 again in Bahrain.

Gasly has been off Verstappen’s pace throughout the weekend and said he has particularly struggled with his car’s rear-end balance compared to Max Verstappen.

“Especially with the rear at the moment I struggle to know how [far] I can go because most of the time it just snaps in a really unpredictable way,” he said. “I think Max was a bit more comfortable than me at the moment with the car. For sure we’ll need to work with the engineers and look at what we can do to make it a bit more suitable for me.”

“Since the beginning of the weekend we kind of struggled especially on my car with the rear,” Gasly explained. “We’ve tried many, many things but just didn’t really improve.”

Gasly narrowly missed the cut for Q3 and will start 13th, eight places behind his team mate. “It’s wheel-spinning a lot and quite unpredictable,” he said. “I didn’t really put everything together and when it’s so tight like this, I missed out for six-hundredths, it cost quite a lot.”

In 2018 Gasly scored his best result of the season for Toro Rosso in Bahrain. He said he “really felt like I could do what I wanted with the car in Bahrain” last year.

“At the moment it just feels like I can’t really drive how I want,” he said in response to a question from RaceFans.

“Sometimes I turn, nothing happens, next moment I will turn, I will lose the rear. It’s just really unpredictable at the moment.

“We tried something in qualifying which didn’t really improve it. Probably I need a bit more time and look with the engineers what we can do to make it a bit more consistent to drive so at least I can predict what’s going to happen. At the moment it’s this unpredictability which makes it a bit difficult for me.”

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10 comments on “Gasly: Verstappen is more comfortable with “unpredictable” Red Bull”

  1. Needs a bit of time regardless nobody expects gasly to beat max, not even RB. I’m liking Albon but he’s not a max type, RB want Ticktum but he hasn’t got a license.

    1. A number of people were predicting a close battle between Max and Gasly, some even backing Gasly to beat Max.

      1. I wonder who those ‘some’ are. I thought it was obvious that Gasly would get thrashed by Max.

    2. GtisBetter (@)
      31st March 2019, 9:35

      Gasly is no F2 driver who just got promoted. He has done multiple years of GP2, a year of Super formula/formula 1 and a full year at torro rosso, with not the best circumstances though. But i think you can demand that he qualifies top 10 if there are no technical problems. Outside top 10 is not acceptable.

  2. Maybe Red Bull knew that balancing the car, aero wise, somehow is going to cost overall speed and its bad for Honda image. I see that it happen on Toro Rosso too, none of four Honda cars look comfortable on high speed corner.

  3. Gasly should be given time to overcome his issues just as Leclerc got time last year who improved considerably after Baku.

    But quoting Helmet Marko regarding Kvyat who also had issues early on in the season in which he was demoted: “… He had brake and tyre issues, that [Daniel] Ricciardo didn’t have”.
    Also in the same article from the end of 2017: “Asked by Motorsport.com if he thought Kvyat had more talent than Gasly and Hartley, Marko replied: “Yes, I completely agree.”

    So the symptom of having issues which a team mate doesn’t have or can overcome, while (in Marko’s eyes) a more talented driver is racing for the B-team.. It’s happening all over again. Arguably, and despite the junior programmes success, Red Bull have promoted another driver too soon.

  4. In the meantime, I just learned that Kvyat’s mechanics let him out for his second run in Q2 on old tires. This is why he didn’t do a lap and came straight back in, having no time left for another run.

    1. Hm. Why would that happen? Just a screw-up?

  5. He cannot fight, after all…

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