Max Verstappen’s Formula 1 title defence is off to a less than ideal start with Red Bull at the Australian Grand Prix.
Second practice on Friday at the Albert Park circuit was a test up and down the grid to see how teams would fare in low-fuel qualifying simulations and Red Bull couldn’t match the likes of McLaren or Ferrari.
Verstappen struggled with grip in his RB21, prompting a series of set-up tweaks in the garage which came too late to avail him of his standing of seventh in FP2, some six tenths off of the pace.
“To be honest, the balance wasn’t even completely out,” Verstappen said post-session. “No massive or major problems.
“But somehow, the grip was not coming alive. I was just struggling on all four tyres, really, in Sector 1 and the last sector.
“That means, of course, that we are not really up there at the moment.”
Alarmingly, that makes Red Bull’s issues harder to cure.
“The problem is that it’s not really like I have major balance problems,” Verstappen explained. “I think it will be a bit hard to fix.
“It’s also nothing that I didn’t expect when I arrived here. I’m not positively or negatively surprised with the pace we are showing.
“We just have to make sure that we find a bit more pace, but at the moment we are definitely lacking a bit to fight up front.”
Liam Lawson admits he’s ‘too slow’
On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Lawson has the uneenviable task of improving at a rate that makes him worthy of the seat alongside Verstappen.
A tall order for any driver and undoubtedly Lawson will need time to get to grips with the RB21.
The New Zealander finished 17th in FP2 and six tenths back from his team-mate, admitting the need to improve.
“[I’m] comfortable [in the car] – just too slow,” he said.
“We obviously have a lot of work to do overnight.
“Day one, on a new track, we were expecting to have some work to do, but probably not this much.
“We’ll work on it overnight and then try and improve it for tomorrow.”
Explaining the issues, Lawson said, “In general, just grip when we need to use it on that short run, but then in general our long run pace was slow as well. We’ll work on it.”
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