1997 Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve already fears Pierre Gasly could be sent back to Toro Rosso.

The Frenchman has had a tough start at Red Bull, failing to make Q3 at the first two races and only scrambled upto P8 in Bahrain thanks to the late Renault failures.

And the Canadian wonders if the step up from the junior team is proving a little too steep for Gasly.

“If Gasly continues like this, returning to Toro Rosso would not be a surprise,” Villeneuve told Sky Italia.

“In the past, many of these boys struggled to move from a small team to a better team. People underestimate it.

“You can compare it to a driver going from Formula 2 to F1. Some can adapt more easily than others."

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While team boss Christian Horner has cut Gasly some slack, Villeneuve fears the ruthless Helmut Marko could have the final say, having already declared Pierre as "not on Max Verstappen's level".

“Gasly will not have much luck with Marko this year,” he claimed. “We know that he is able to change his mind every five minutes.”

The biggest irony could be that the driver most likely to be considered, should Gasly continue to struggle, is Daniil Kvyat who infamously became the first Red Bull driver to be pushed back to Toro Rosso back in 2016.

It's unlikely that will happen any time soon, however.