Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has appeared to give Pierre Gasly until the summer break to improve his results.
The Frenchman has struggled since stepping up to replace Daniel Ricciardo, scoring barely a third the number of points as teammate Max Verstappen and has been beaten by a midfield car on pace alone at the past three races.
Despite that, the notoriously tough Red Bull bosses have been much more kind with Gasly, even giving him a guarantee he would see out the season.
And in comments to Germany’s AutoBild, Marko began by trying to explain why the 23-year-old finished a lap down on his teammate in Austria.
“That can be partly explained by the fact that we had a new front wing, which was a big step, but unfortunately we had only one left for the race and Max got it,” he said.
However, that was followed by: “Nevertheless, Gasly has to improve, especially when overtaking. He has to deliver by the summer break, but I’m sure we’ll get him there,” Marko concluded.
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The Austrian then switched his attention to Verstappen suggesting his victory should reassure the Dutchman about the potential of the team going forward.
“Sunday’s victory was an important step, Max knows what he has with us and Honda and the Honda people showed what they are capable of doing at the Red Bull Ring,” he said.
“The first time they’ve used a new, more aggressive engine software this season brought us a big step forward, with the next expansion of the engine [coming] in Monza.
“We are also improving from the chassis side in every race and now I can confidently say that when the others falter we are fully there.”
