The struggling F1 driver dispelling a frustrating myth

If Lewis Hamilton was driving a Williams this season, he would definitely not be leading the world championship. If Robert Kubica was at the wheel of Hamilton's Mercedes, he would probably not be leading the world championship.

Hamilton is a driver at the peak of his powers, but that does not mean he could overcome a car that is so much slower than the rest. Equally, the Mercedes is evidently good enough to allow a driver to win races and lead the title battle, but Kubica is a driver making a comeback after eight years out of F1 and still has question marks over his ultimate ability. He would have a much better chance than he has now, but it is unlikely Kubica would be producing the sort of performances Hamilton has unlocked so far in 2019.

The point of this comparison is to highlight that while car performance is vital in Formula 1, it is a frustrating myth that it is absolutely everything. It is one of the great misconceptions about motorsport: the idea that any driver could get in a top car and win straight away.

This supposition is disrespectful to established world champions such as Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, and to the extraordinary ability of young talents including Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, who make the transition to new, bigger teams look effortless. If it looks easy, it is because of their ability, their work ethic and a dash of good fortune in having cars that suit their driving styles and give them confidence. It is not because it is easy.

To think otherwise is to be worryingly dismissive of the challenge of the pinnacle of motor racing. The Hamilton/Kubica hypothesis is a dramatic extrapolation of this, but there is a much more compelling, real-life example playing out at the start of 2019.

Pierre Gasly was walking on air last summer when he got the call to replace Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull in 2019. However, three races into the season, he has a best finish of sixth to his name and trails Max Verstappen on average in qualifying by 0.467 seconds, which is based on a comparison of times in the last segment of qualifying in which they both participated.

By this stage last year, Gasly had bagged a fourth place in Bahrain driving for Toro Rosso, the unfancied Red Bull junior team, and was piling the pressure on his team-mate Brendon Hartley. Now it is Gasly whose future is suddenly being questioned.

Gasly's hard start to life at Red Bull began with two heavy crashes in pre-season testing, but the enduring trouble is perhaps best illustrated by one moment during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, when Verstappen was sent out on medium tyres in the second part of qualifying and Gasly had to use soft tyres. Verstappen was so quick that he could afford to use the slower rubber to get through to the top-10 shootout, while giving himself the optimal tyre to start the race on. Such was Gasly's pace deficit to the man in the same car that the Frenchman needed a proper performance run to be sure of a Q3 place.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner says Gasly must "refine his style to optimise the best from the characteristics of the car". That is not the work of a moment

Both drivers failed to set a second lap in Q3, so maybe Gasly's qualifying deficit of 0.8s was exaggerated by circumstance. But he was 0.6s slower in Q1 and Q2, so it would be optimistic to say it would have been much better. And he was then more than half a minute behind Verstappen before taking an extra pitstop for fresher tyres so he could claim the fastest lap bonus point in the race.

It says a lot that despite this, the Chinese Grand Prix was Gasly's most encouraging so far in his first season for Red Bull. As he admitted, "there's still a lot of work to do" as he tries to make the most of a promotion that seemed so simple on paper.

The influence of small details

Scott Mitchell

Joining a multiple title-winning team, and winner of four races last year, must have set Gasly's expectations sky-high for 2019. But he will be quickly revising them now reality has bitten.

By Red Bull's own admission, Gasly has been promoted from Toro Rosso earlier than would be ideal. He is the replacement for Ricciardo that Red Bull never thought it would need. But Gasly has had as much time as Leclerc has had to bed in at Ferrari, and the results are nowhere near as encouraging.

Gasly has admitted he is not as comfortable driving his Red Bull as he was the slower Toro Rosso last year. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has said his new driver needs to "refine his style to optimise the best from the characteristics of the car".

That is not the work of a moment. Even Ricciardo himself, so much more experienced than Gasly, has found how hard it is to switch teams and find the sweet spot right away. Anyone who thought that a top driver would get into a midfield team and show them who is the boss must have been very surprised to see how much of a performance edge Nico Hulkenberg had over the first few races.

"At least for now it is a bit more on a knife edge in that area," Ricciardo admitted before China. "I've noticed a lock of wheel here or there where I wouldn't have last year, so I am trying to figure out where the limit is. I might have to adapt a little bit the way I approach it, but I am still going to try to sort it. I still want my competitors to fear me."

Ricciardo went on to enjoy a much smoother weekend in China, where he outqualified Hulkenberg and was beating him in the race before his team-mate retired, and said that F1's post-Bahrain test had been a key part of identifying why Ricciardo was locking his brakes so easily, when he could not previously understand why. It was a small detail with a big consequence.

You can look elsewhere on the 2019 grid for a prominent example of a driver who discovered just how tricky it is to change teams. Last year, Valtteri Bottas told Autosport that it was "a bit bigger than I expected" when he swapped four years of racing for Williams for a move into the title-winning Mercedes team.

On corner entry, Gasly can't rotate the car as aggressively as Verstappen. Initially, it seemed this might be down to him holding back but, in fact, it's down to braking a little too late

One example Autosport highlighted at the time was with the rear differential, which Bottas explained was separated for corner entry, mid-corner and exit.

"If I speak about the entry, we can open the diff early but we can also change the shaping, how quickly it opens and how much it opens," he said. "The same for mid-corner, we can limit if it's completely open or if there's a tiny bit of pressure, and at the exit how it reacts to when we get on the power, how quickly the diff locks again and the shaping of that."

The process of trying to identify what a problem is in F1 is relatively simple, but identifying the best way to solve it is harder. When there are so many options, this can be a very draining experience.

It is likely to be what Gasly is going through right now, as he scrambles to understand the cause of his struggles and tries to rectify it - all the while knowing that Red Bull is famously less patient than a team like Mercedes.

The impact of the car and driver

Edd Straw

Having watched Gasly throughout the season and in pre-season testing, it's clear that he's not as comfortable with the car as Verstappen. Confidence perhaps plays a part in this, especially after two testing crashes and his failure to make Q3 in either of the first two races, but there's more to it.

When asked about this after qualifying in China, Gasly pointed to the exit phase of the corner.

"Especially like, quite similar to last weekend, with the rear being quite tricky," he said. "I think clearly we know that's the area we need to improve, I know I have some work to maximise the car itself, so I probably need to change my driving a bit and with the team, make it a bit smoother and suitable to my driving. We just need to keep working together and for sure we'll get there."

Interestingly, this doesn't entirely match with trackside observations - at least in terms of whether the exit phase itself is cause or effect.

On entry, Gasly is unable to rotate the car as aggressively as Verstappen. Initially, it seemed that this might be down to him holding back but, in fact, it's down to braking a little too late - later than Verstappen in fact.

This induces understeer, and forces him to wind on more lock to get the nose in. Even then, the nose doesn't go in as directly as it does for Verstappen, which means he ends up mid-corner with the car less rotated and still with greater lock than Verstappen.

This appears to be why there is a problem when getting on the throttle. Ideally, the less lock you have on when you feed in the throttle the better, but with more turning still to be done thanks to the compromised entry, the more you have to have on. So Gasly needs to dial it back on entry, maybe shave a few metres off his braking point and ensure he gets the car dynamically right mid-corner.

This should come. Gasly is a good driver and turned in some great performances last year in the Toro Rosso. He thrived in particular when the rear was a little lose, something that Hartley struggled with, but doesn't appear to be able to rotate the car as aggressively as he once did this year.

So as is often the case, he needs to be a little more conservative on the way in, get the car turned, get it right mid corner and then feed in the power. That should increase the traction and give him the launch off the corner. A quick corner entry is only useful if you can retain any time gained, and the pace difference to Verstappen shows he's losing far more with the problems he creates than the time he might gain in the early phase of turn in.

"I was quite alone all race, so I tried many different things, to try to understand what I can do inside the car to go around the main thing I still struggle with" Pierre Gasly

But the Red Bull is an esoteric car - look at how Ricicardo has battled to adapt to the Renault. Gasly hasn't had much time in the car, and while the gap to Verstappen is significant, he's up against a great driver who has four years of experience in this kind of car.

Gasly needs some more time to be at one with the car and unlock the pace he's shown he has. The challenge now is whether he can apply himself to mastering the Red Bull, or if he will get caught in the trap some drivers do of wanting the car to do something it can't do.

The importance of time

The only way to avoid that trap is for Gasly to be given what Red Bull is guilty of not affording some drivers: patience. Especially as Red Bull knows its car has a narrow working window and still needs work.

In reality, Gasly probably needs all of 2019 to learn how to get the most out of Red Bull's car, its team and its methods. His second season would almost certainly start in better fashion. What Gasly must cling to is the optimism he had on Sunday in China, where he felt he was edging towards greater progress.

"I was quite alone for all the race," said Gasly. "So I tried many different things with the driving, trying to understand what I can do inside the car to go around the main thing I still struggle with and get some more answers."

Some complain that modern cars are far too similar to one another, but the differences that are identifiable on the surface increase exponentially underneath and behind the garage door.

This is why, although it goes against the grain for some critics, a faster car does not always guarantee better results. Changing teams presents a host of challenges and when the margins are so fine it does not take much to trip even the very best drivers up.

That is the true nature of F1. Gasly is unfortunate that, for a variety of reasons, he is presently the walking embodiment of just how tough the reality is.