Max Verstappen has indicated that Red Bull needs to improve its package for this weekend’s Formula 1 British Grand Prix, after a “poor day” of running in Friday’s free practice sessions.
The reigning World Champion was 10th and fifth in FP1 and 2 respectively at Silverstone, around half a second off the fastest time on each occasion.
Yuki Tsunoda was 15th in FP2, having given his car to the team’s junior prospect Arvid Lindblad in FP1, the British teenager ending up in 14th.
The RB21 suffered a tendency to understeer significantly during the day, a handicap that seemed to significantly blunt Verstappen’s progress.
Speaking at the end of the afternoon, Verstappen outlined the car’s performance issues, confirming many hints from onboard TV shots that the understeer was a significant hindrance.
“For me personally it was quite a bad day and no balance in the car,” he said. “It’s a very difficult corner to corner as well, so yeah, quite a poor day I think for us in general.”
Verstappen confirmed that the high winds around the Silverstone circuit contributed to the problem, but was reluctant to use it as an excuse.
“A lot, but that’s of course not an excuse because everyone has to deal with that, right? So it’s not easy, but same same for everyone,” he said, adding that the car “seems quite sensitive to it.”
When asked if there are any ideas he or the team have to rectify the problem
“Maybe a few we’ll look at. I think overall, yeah, it was just lacking a bit of performance.”
Horner confident of remedying ‘tunable’ understeer issue
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner appeared more positive about the problems the RB21 was having, saying that the team should be able to fine-tune them before tomorrow’s qualifying.
“Yeah, we’ve got some understeer in the car that we just need to tidy up, so it’s a bit of a balancing effect,” he said.
“I think if we can tidy that up… I mean we’re giving away 90% of our lap time in Turns 6 and 7. So the slow speed and turning back into the wind there, but the rest of the laps looking pretty decent.
“And actually the long run, if you look at the times, look pretty sensible. So I think we’ve got something we can work with, we’ve just got to make sure we tune it overnight the right way.”
Horner confirmed that the floor upgrades the team has brought to Silverstone have had the desired effect, but now needs to be able to work in conjunction with the rest of the package.
“It’s not an easy fix, but it’s something that’s tunable,” he said. “We’ve introduced a new floor here, it’s given the load that we were hoping for, or that correlates with what we expected, it’s now a matter of balancing it.
“And I think that the slope of Brooklands, is it still Luffield, those corners in this middle sector are where we need to find the time, and in the middle of Becketts, if we can get some front in the car, and we know how much Max hates understeer, if we can get some front in the car, then I think he can be very competitive.
“But at the long run, where everything calms down a bit, definitely the long runs look reasonably sensible.”
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