Paired with the ferocious talent that is Max Verstappen, it was never going to be easy for Pierre Gasly.

However, a largely disappointing start to the season, which sees the Frenchman 83 point adrift of his teammate, and having only once out-qualified him, went from bad to worse when the 2016 GP2 champion was lapped by Verstappen on his way to victory in Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

At a time Red Bull's Lord High Executioner, Helmut Marko would normally be showing Gasly the door, team boss, Christian Horner admits that the youngster needs a reset.

"Pierre is having a tough time at the moment," said the Briton, "we're doing our best to support him, I think he just needs a reset. I think we have got to somehow go 'control alt delete' in his head and start again.

"He is a quick driver," Horner continued. "The problem he has got is that Max is delivering every week, and that puts more pressure on him to perform, but we're sticking by him. We still believe in him and we'll give him all the support we can to try and nurture the talent we know he has."

Not known for their patience the two Red Bull owned teams have a long history of drivers who have unceremoniously dumped after failing to impress, witness Daniil Kvyat who has been dropped three times.

"There is no intention to change Pierre," insists Horner. "He's our driver, we're going to work with him, we will try to get the best out of him. He's having a tough time at the moment but we will do our best to support him through it."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by F1 Yank, 02/07/2019 21:55

"I for one would have liked to see Raikkonen or Alonso in the Redbull. The only alternative at this point is to drop Ocon in and see what happens. Or pull Gasly, move Raikkonen over to Redbull and drop Ocon into the Sauber. I think Kyvat had his chance although I do believe he is driving pretty well at the moment. It wouldn't make sense to give Kyvat one more try. Who else (worth something) is available on the standby list? This would be interesting on the legal/contract side and how the teams would make it work. Obviously it would require a driver loan or contract buy out."

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2. Posted by Bill Hopgood, 02/07/2019 19:17

"Going by past actions of Red Bull, unless Gasley can turn his season around soon, he won't be in the Red Bull "family" for long.
F1 is a performance based sport and reliability / getting caught in other drivers accidents and issues aside, if the points aren't coming in comparison to the team mate then the driver is gone.
Sometimes even if the driver is performing OK Red Bull still put the squeeze on.
Brutal side of the sport however with the amounts of money and politics involved..."

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Gasly needs a "reset" admits Horner

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