Verstappen: “It was difficult to find the right balance. We are not at the level of the others”

The updates in Austria On the occasion of the home Grand Prix on the Spielberg circuit, Red Bull presented itself with an important package of updates, with the work of the technicians focusing largely on the aerodynamics of the RB22. Taking to the track today for the first two free practice sessions, Verstappen finished FP1 in fourth position, replicating the same result in FP2 as well. What’s missing? A general performance which, however, did not fully satisfy the four-time world champion at the end of the day of testing, who believes that the team still has to take steps to be more competitive: “In today’s free practice sessions it was a bit difficult to find the right balance – he admitted – we need to work on the front and rear grip and find the right compromise. This will help us find a little more rhythm, given that at the moment we are not yet at the level of the others. We will see what we can do tomorrow to find greater stability in general and we hope to do a good qualification”. A feeling also shared by the Dutchman’s teammate: Isack Hadjar. For the Frenchman, despite the updates, the car is still unbalanced, although the progress made in the last free practice session can be a good sign in view of qualifying: “Today we struggled to make the most of the car and our updates, because it seemed unbalanced. In FP1 we started a bit slow and we had grip problems, so it was a bit of a guessing game, but the balance seemed better in FP2, so this is good news. It seemed very easier to drive, so the performance should come tomorrow, but we are not yet where we want to be. We will have to work a lot on the set-up for tomorrow, but usually the car comes alive in qualifying, so we hope to find a good rhythm.”

Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News

2026-06-27 04:33:00