Christian Horner has suggested Sebastian Vettel is lacking the "fun factor" he enjoyed with Red Bull at Ferrari.
The German left the Anglo-Austrian team at the end of 2014 in a bid to achieve his dream of following Michael Schumacher as a world champion at the Scuderia.
Now in his fifth year with Ferrari, the wait goes on as championship bids in 2017 and 2018 fell short largely due to mistakes from Vettel.
And after he qualified a lowly seventh on the grid in France following a difficult Q3, Horner noted the big difference between the 31-year-old during his Red Bull years and now at Maranello.
"With us, Sebastian was like a metronome when he was in the lead of a Grand Prix, he was always so strong in that position," he said to PA Sport.
"He obviously looks a lot more under pressure these days as he is carrying the hopes of Ferrari in what looks like a pressure-cooker environment.
"To get the best out of people, you have got to deliver the right environment for them – that is so important."
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This year, the arrival of Charles Leclerc and disenchantment with F1's direction has seen growing speculation that retirement isn't too far away.
And the Red Bull chief would understand why that is the case,
"Sebastian is very much his own man," Horner said. "He is a fan of the history of the sport, and like anybody, when you enjoy what you are doing, you do it that much better.
"Certainly the years that we had at Red Bull were always a lot of fun. Even when we were competing hard against formidable rivals there was always a fun factor to it."
