Gasly not trying to beat Verstappen

Pierre Gasly has slotted himself into a supporting role behind top Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

Gasly, who made his full F1 debut last year for Toro Rosso, was scolded for lacking "discipline" by Dr Helmut Marko after two winter testing crashes.

So in Melbourne for his first race for the senior team Red Bull Racing, Gasly said: "I am trying to learn a lot from Max and everything is going very well.

"I am trying to learn from his experience with the team and his speed. At the moment I don't have the goal to beat Max.

"He has much more experience of working with the team and in formula one, so it would be wrong now for me to think about fighting him.

"It's going to be a learning season first and it's difficult to have clear expectations for the season.

"Probably the driver I am today will have nothing to do with the driver I will be at the end of the season," said Gasly, who at 23 is actually two years older than Verstappen.

"I need to learn from his experience in order to become stronger myself," he added.