Red Bull's Pierre Gasly believes set-up changes between practice and qualifying were the catalyst for his performance struggles at his home event.
Gasly qualified only ninth for the French Grand Prix and, having made early gains, slipped through the pack, and classified only 11th.
He nonetheless moved up to 10th, earning a point, in the wake of Daniel Ricciardo’s post-race time penalties.
“At the moment I just slide all four wheels quite a lot,” Gasly explained when asked by Motorsport Week.
“So FP3 was good, from qualifying we struggled massively and was the same in the race. Quite big drop of grip. Just sliding. I don’t have any answer at the moment.
“It’s clearly something we need to analyse to see why we had low grip.
“I never really felt that car like this. It was clearly something we did after FP3.
“I’m sure we’ll analyse with the team to understand but at the moment I don’t have any answer.”
Gasly expressed disappointment that the underperformance came in front of his home crowd, but was more interested at finding a solution to the setback.
“It’s disappointing to perform in that manner at home but the bigger issue is understanding what is wrong with the car,” he said.
“I’m giving everything at the wheel but I’m sliding everywhere. There is something to understand here.”
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