Max Verstappen believes that Red Bull will be the “solid third team” once more at the Belgian Grand Prix, following the conclusion of Friday’s practice sessions.
Red Bull has been behind the Mercedes/Ferrari title fight throughout 2017, while holding a comfortable buffer over the midfield, and holds third in the standings.
Verstappen was fourth quickest during the second practice session at Spa-Francorchamps, 0.472s behind leader Lewis Hamilton, as Red Bull evaluated different set-ups on the RB13.
Verstappen ran with a higher downforce approach, maximising potential through sector two, while Ricciardo prioritised straight-line speed, required for the first and last sectors.
“Between Daniel and myself we tried a few set-ups to improve speed on the straights, it’s somewhere we need to improve in order to fight so we are trying to find a good compromise,” said Verstappen.
“At the moment we don’t seem too far off the two top teams but it is only Friday, I’m sure it will be a different gap tomorrow.
“In the dry I think we will be the solid third team like we have seen so far this season.”
Ricciardo feels that his set-up direction did not yield any form of breakthrough, and reckons he will adopt a different approach on Saturday.
Ricciardo finished the day in sixth position, his best time 0.8s behind nearest opponent Valtteri Bottas.
“I tried to be quick in the first and third part, but the compromise wasn’t good enough,” he admitted.
“I still lost too much in the second sector. Yes there was some traffic as well and without that I could’ve probably gone a few tenths quicker but it still wouldn’t have put me in the top five.
“For sure we won’t keep the same set-up tomorrow. Whether we’ll go in Max’s direction or try to find a better compromise between the two we’ll see, but we’ll definitely be stronger tomorrow.”
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