Pierre Gasly needs to produce results if Red Bull wants to challenge Ferrari in the Constructors’ standings, Christian Horner admits.
Currently, the gap is 44 points between the two teams, with Gasly’s total of just 55 from the first 11 races putting only seven clear of seventh-placed Carlos Sainz and 65 behind Charles Leclerc.
And though the Frenchman showed signs of getting to terms with his Red Bull problems at the British GP, that didn’t follow in Germany as he faltered in the wet conditions.
“It’s been up and down,” Horner said of his weekend. “Gasly had a strong qualifying, he had a difficult first pit stop, there was a problem with the right-rear wheel nut and then they had to hold him because the whole queue of cars came in.
“He was recovering well, recovering, recovering, recovering, then on the last restart he passed Vettel but went wide on three consecutive laps at Turn 1 and that’s where the other cars got past him.”
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A late collision with Alex Albon then took the 23-year-old out of the points meaning…
“Instead of taking 20-odd points out of them we’ve only taken seven or eight,” Horner noted.
“I think if we can start double scoring that’s our target in the second half of the year to close that gap down.”
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko also pulled no punches about Gasly’s race.
“In qualifying, he showed a strong reaction to his accident,” Marko told Auto Motor und Sport.
“His pace in the race wasn’t bad, but Gasly is just too weak when fighting and overtaking and the crash with Albon was completely unnecessary.”