Red Bull Racing team boss Christian Horner says Pierre Gasly needs a mental reset to turn around his 2019 season, but the Brit remains supportive of the Frenchman.
Gasly was promoted to Red Bull after a solid maiden year in F1 with Toro Rosso. However, the 23-year-old has struggled to match the performance of Max Verstappen, the Dutchman outscoring his teammate by a massive 83 points.
In Austria, Gasly suffered the embarrassment of being lapped by Verstappen, a plight that further underscored his current difficulties.
And Red Bull motorsport boss Helmut Marko recently labeled Gasly's results and speed as "unacceptable", fueling rumors of his potential replacement.
While Horner admits his driver needs to turn around his fortunes sooner rather than later, the Brit says Red Bull has no plans to drop its young charger.
"Pierre is having a tough time at the moment, we’re doing our best to support him, I think he just needs a reset," Horner said.
“I think we have got to somehow go ‘Ctrl+Alt+Del’ in his head and start again. He is a quick driver.
"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.
"There is no intention to change Pierre. 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."
In Austria, before Sunday's race, Gasly acknowledged his need to step up his performance, but the Frenchman also said that part of the criticism leveled at him wasn't warranted.
"For sure there's a lot of negative talks going around, sometimes deserved, sometimes not deserved," he explained.
"But I think it's part of this job, it's something you need to handle. Is it fair? Sometimes I don't think so. But at the end of the day the only thing I can do is just focus on myself, and think or try to find out what I can do better.
"There are things I can do better with this car for sure. I feel I'm not completely driving the way I would like, and there are things I could change to go faster, and that's what I'm trying to focus on.
"The team is helping me to go in that direction. Am I fully happy with my results? Clearly not. Do I want to get more out of this? Yes. Am I doing everything I can at the moment to go in that direction? Yes."
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