Pierre Gasly has said that he is looking to return from the Formula 1 summer break “sharper” after a difficult first half of the season.

Gasly has struggled for pace since his move to Red Bull at the start of the season and has found himself completely out-performed by his teammate, Max Verstappen.

While Verstappen has two wins already this year and hasn’t finished any lower than fifth, Gasly’s best result is a fourth place at the British Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old also struggled last weekend in Hungary, finishing sixth behind the McLaren of Carlos Sainz and a lap down on Verstappen.

“It was a difficult race right from the beginning.” commented Gasly

“The weekend started pretty well and Friday was good, we were happy with FP1 and FP2, but from Saturday I have just struggled for grip.”

“We finished the race P6 and scored some points but for sure it was not the amount we wanted.”

With the four week summer break having now begun, Gasly is looking forward to having some time to reflect on his season so far and coming back stronger for the second half of the season.

“I will relax and review the first half of the season, I will look at what went well and what could have been better so I come back sharper and stronger for the second half and make sure we score more points.”

Gasly hurting Red Bull’s fight with Ferrari

With Gasly lagging so far behind his teammate, Red Bull are starting to miss out on additional points that would help them close the gap to Ferrari in the Constructor’s Championship and Red Bull Team Principal, Christian Horner believes Gasly’s form is starting to hurt it’s chances of getting ahead of the Scuderia.

Speaking to Motorsport.com, Horner said: “Not having two cars running at the front does hurt us, particularly in the constructors’ championship. I think we have scored the same amount of points as Ferrari today on a track where we should have taken more out of them.”

“I think he really needs to take some time out during the summer break, reflect on the first half of the season and take the lessons from that into the second half of the year.

“It is vital for us if we are to stand any chance of catching Ferrari that we have him finishing further ahead.”