Gasly looking for breakthrough effort in Shanghai

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Pierre Gasly is hoping that the third race of the year will be the charm next week in Shanghai, as he bids to overcome his teething problems with the RB15.

The 23-year-old French driver was promoted from Toro Rosso to the senior Red Bull squad over the winter, to replace the departing Daniel Ricciardo.

But problems in qualifying in Melbourne left him stuck outside the top ten, while finishing eighth in Bahrain was at least a step in the right direction.

"It was not an easy weekend with the changing conditions," Gasly reported. "But at the same time it was good to finish inside the points."

Narrow operating window of RB15 challenging Red Bull drivers

However it was still a long way off the benchmark set by his team mate Max Verstappen, and Gasly subsequently admitted that he was still finding his way at his new squad.

"I’m still not completely comfortable with the car," he acknowledged after last week's race. "As soon as I try to push, I struggle a lot with the rear and the traction.

"For sure, I need to see what I can improve to get the maximum out of the car and work with the engineers to see what we can do to make me feel more confident, because at the moment I feel I cannot really push.

"I need to make an effort and adapt, because each car is different, and I will work with the team to find a set-up which fits my driving style better.

"We will do the work and I’ll do anything I can to arrive stronger in China," he added. "Now we’re just focusing on the areas we can improve on before next weekend.

"We just need to keep the improvements we’ve made from one race to another. Hopefully we’ll be able to find some more performance and fight for even better points."

Last year's race in Shanghai didn't go all that well for Gasly when he qualified in 17th place with Toro Rosso and dropped a spot in the race. He's hoping for considerably better this time around.

"China is not actually a place I really know well," he commented. "Last year was my first race there but I’m looking forward to going back.

"Shanghai is a really special track, with the long back straight and the technical part at the beginning.

"I’m really excited to go racing again for the third round of the season," he continued. "Red Bull took its first victory in China and this year’s race is also F1’s 1000th Grand Prix, so it will be a special weekend

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.