The free practice session for Red Bull was definitely disappointing, with Verstappen trailing over six-tenths behind Leclerc.
The first two free practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix, especially the second one, showed a Red Bull team that was particularly struggling on both fronts. In terms of single-lap pace, Max Verstappen was over six-tenths behind Charles Leclerc, while in race pace, both Verstappen and Lawson were about a second per lap slower than the competition.
A situation that, for now, seems really difficult and which Max himself described as follows: “The grip today wasn’t ideal and we struggled with all four tires, especially in the first and third sectors. It seems that right now we’re not there, but we will work to find the pace. There are no balance issues, and I think that makes things more difficult. We definitely didn’t expect to find ourselves in this situation.
The positive thing is that we’re surprised by the pace shown by the car. Historically, we haven’t performed very well here in Melbourne, especially since the resurfacing of the track, so we’ll see how the weekend goes. Still, we will continue working to find that extra something before qualifying.”
Liam Lawson was on the same page, finishing further down the order after the second session. These were his words: “I felt comfortable in the car today, but it wasn’t fast enough, and we’ll have a lot of work to do. On the first day at a new track, you expect to work, but not this much. We can’t really say why we had so many issues—if we knew, we’d be able to solve them more quickly. We need to focus on the single-lap pace, but even the race simulation didn’t go that well. There’s a lot to do here. It’ll be a challenge for the team, but the goal is to improve by tomorrow.”
Photo: X Oracle Red Bull Racing