Max Verstappen admitted after Friday practice for the Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix that he isn’t expecting a “massive turnaround” from Red Bull heading into qualifying, as he conceded the circuit layout is exposing the team’s “underlying” weaknesses.
The Dutchman was once again left frustrated by a lack of performance from the RB21, a continuation of the struggles seen at the Hungarian Grand Prix before the summer break, with Red Bull still trying to iron out the car’s persistent issues.
Verstappen admitted that despite numerous set-up changes, the problems remained, with Zandvoort’s long, sweeping corners only amplifying Red Bull’s limitations.
Asked by Sky Sports F1 to assess his day in front of his passionate home crowd, the 27-year-old conceded it had not been a positive one.
“I mean, nothing special really,” he said. “Still struggling with the same things. Again, we tried a lot of things with the car, but it just doesn’t really seem to change anything in terms of the underlying problems.
“So, yeah, we’ll look overnight if we can find a bit more, but I’m not going to expect a massive turnaround. I think it’s just tricky. Plus, the layout of the track also probably doesn’t suit our problems that we have with the car.”
To compound his frustrations, Verstappen suffered an off in FP1, running straight on at Turn 1 towards the end of the session. He misjudged his braking and ploughed through the gravel trap before becoming beached, forcing him to climb out of the cockpit.
Meanwhile, Lando Norris set the pace in both sessions for McLaren, with Fernando Alonso close behind in the Aston Martin, underlining the challenge Verstappen faces if he is to fight at the front in qualifying.
Zandvoort layout exposes Red Bull’s struggles
The characteristics of Zandvoort itself are making life particularly difficult for the reigning World Champion in the RB21. When asked whether a specific part of the track was causing the biggest problems, he pointed straight to the middle of the lap.
“I mean, the second sector obviously,” he replied. “That’s my main problem. In the middle sector, there are a lot of long corners, so it’s not great.”
Looking ahead to the weekend, Verstappen suggested that even securing a place inside the top five could be a challenge.
“Yeah, I think it will be really hard enough to be in that top five, it looks like,” the Red Bull driver conceded. “But yeah, we’ll see tomorrow.”
On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Yuki Tsunoda endured a scrappy start to Friday, suffering a small off in FP1 and ending the session down in 16th. The Japanese driver regrouped later on, however, and recovered to post the seventh-fastest time in FP2.
Red Bull was also one of the few teams to bring an upgrade to this weekend’s Dutch GP, introducing a subtle tweak to the RB21’s front wing.
The change, featuring longer chord front flaps, was intended, according to the FIA’s upgrade sheet, to “increase the load available via angle” and better suit “the expected demands of the Zandvoort circuit.”
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