Red Bull Formula 1 team principal Christian Horner insisted new signing Pierre Gasly must be ‘given time’ after his disappointing Australian Grand Prix.
Gasly was eliminated from Melbourne qualifying in Q1 when Red Bull was caught out by track evolution, and could only recover to 11th in the race.
He spent most of the race stuck behind the Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat, and was unable to get past the Russian even when running on softer, fresher tyres late on.
Gasly had ended practice ahead of team-mate Max Verstappen – who finished on the podium – but the point-less race added to his challenging start at Red Bull following two crashes in pre-season testing.
Asked by Sky whether Gasly was already under pressure in the team, Horner said: “It’s still early days. There’s always pressure in Formula 1 but I thought he drove a good race.
“He just needs a straightforward weekend.
“He built his way into the weekend very well, his feedback’s very strong.
“We know he’s got the pace, we’ve just got to give the kid a bit of time and it’ll come right for him.”
Horner felt that Gasly was “unlucky not to get a point”, adding that his driver was hampered by cars ahead running within DRS range of each other – which meant Gasly did not get to profit from its use.
“Unfortunately he ended up in that DRS train,” Horner said.
“The Toro Rosso was very quick on the straight, I think they were probably running a little less downforce than we were, and even with the added grip that he had from that softest tyre, unfortunately it wasn’t enough to smash through the lower part of the top 10.
“I thought his recovery was strong and it’s a very difficult track to pass at.”
While Verstappen did manage to pass the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel with DRS for an eventual third place, Gasly echoed Horner’s point about the difficulty of overtaking around the Melbourne circuit.
“Starting 17th we knew to make it back into the top 10 on a track like this is difficult,” Gasly said.
“Last year there were four overtakings overall in the race, I’m not sure there were many more this year.
“I tried to give everything but unfortunately was just out of the points.
“I had some debris in the front wing, they told me, and we were in the pack with DRS, and even with DRS I could not catch the Toro Rossos in the straight.
“We saw they have really strong top speed all weekend.”