Max Verstappen: Red Bull faces significant issues with F1 vehicle, no straightforward solution available.
Max Verstappen has indicated that Red Bull is still facing “significant issues” with its car following two challenging practice sessions on Friday ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
In the second practice, Verstappen recorded the tenth fastest time, trailing Oscar Piastri’s quickest lap by 1.4 seconds at Suzuka.
“To be honest, it’s not very good,” Verstappen remarked after the session. “We are experiencing a lack of balance and grip — two contrasting issues from FP1 to FP2, and neither is satisfactory.
“There is a considerable amount of work to be done on our side to comprehend why we are facing these significant problems currently. It was not a good day.”
This challenging start to the race weekend in Japan follows a disappointing outing at the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks prior, where Verstappen finished ninth in the sprint race and did not complete the grand prix.
Verstappen noted that the underlying cause of the performance deficit was different this weekend, yet it still left him behind the leading competitors.
“We have been struggling much more with the car’s balance and grip,” he added. “It was not akin to China, but we are still lagging behind.
“We still do not fully understand why we are so far off in sector one, particularly in medium to high-speed areas. That is something we need to address.
“I don’t believe it’s a straightforward fix overnight. However, there are several aspects that are not functioning correctly at the moment.”
Red Bull’s chief engineer, Paul Monaghan, stated that the team would seek to implement changes to enhance performance ahead of final practice and qualifying.
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“One only needs to look at our relative position — it does not meet the standard we have set for ourselves or the standard Max expects from us,” Monaghan commented.
“I believe we have pinpointed a few issues that are incorrect, and now it is a matter of confirming and understanding them sufficiently to influence, rectify, or correct them for tomorrow. We will see how tomorrow unfolds.
“I would characterize today as challenging.”
Source: espn.com
