Source – Formula1.com
After a tight first day of racing at Monza, Max Verstappen feels that Red Bull still has work to do to be “really competitive” throughout the remainder of the Italian Grand Prix weekend. The Dutchman had mixed results during Friday’s practice sessions.
Max Verstappen, fresh off a dominant performance in FP1, faces a challenging weekend as Red Bull struggles to find its footing at Monza. After topping the timesheets in the opening practice session, Verstappen’s fortunes took a turn in FP2, where he ended up 14th, having skipped a run on the soft tyres. Despite the mixed results, the reigning world champion remains optimistic about the team’s potential.
“We tried several different things today,” Verstappen explained. “FP2 wasn’t ideal initially, but the long run showed some promise. The car seems quite aggressive on tyres right now, which will be interesting to monitor as we approach the race. We have a few promising directions to explore; we just need to fine-tune them.”
Verstappen highlighted the tight competition expected throughout the weekend, with the leading cars all closely matched. “It will be close between many teams. We need to bring it all together to be in the mix,” he said. His focus is on optimizing the RB20 to ensure Red Bull remains competitive as temperatures continue to soar.
On the other side of the Red Bull garage, Sergio Perez experienced a challenging FP2 session. After a precautionary gearbox change between sessions, Perez’s running was delayed, and he finished 15th. The Mexican driver expressed concerns over the car’s performance and mechanical issues encountered during the session.
“We are a bit on the back foot,” Perez admitted. “We faced several issues in FP2 due to the rushed gearbox change. We need to understand the car’s performance better to overcome these challenges.”
Despite these setbacks, Perez remains hopeful. “We’re fighting through the issues and aiming to make progress. Hopefully, we can improve our single-lap performance and be more competitive in the race.”
As Red Bull looks to address its performance issues, both Verstappen and Perez are determined to find solutions and remain in contention for a strong result at the Italian Grand Prix. The team’s focus will be on refining their setup and tackling the technical challenges head-on to close the gap to their rivals.
