Verstappen Shares Honest Thoughts After 'Difficult' Start To Race Weekend

Saturday, 18 May 2024 at 10:02

Max Verstappen shared his feelings after the end of the second free practice session at Imola Circuit ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

This week's race is crucial for Red Bull, which needs to re-establish dominance after being beaten by McLaren during the most recent race in Miami.

The team from Milton Keynes brought some upgrades, about which Helmut Marko was quite confident. However, Imola is supposed to suit McLaren very well, and Ferrari brought an even bigger upgrade than Red Bull.

What's more, the Austrian team struggled in the first two sessions with the setup and balance of their cars, which was reflected in the results.

Although it is important to note that all teams run different engine modes and different fuel loads, we are not used to seeing Verstappen in P5 and P7 in FP1 and FP2, respectively. He told the media:

"It was a difficult day today. It was tricky to get a good balance and we were not really feeling comfortable within the car. It was moving around a lot and was very easy to lose the car at some points on the track."

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"There are a few things we have to look at after today as our performance wasn't as good as expected and we were not comfortable."

As opposed to Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, and even Mercedes were doing a bit better. It might be a very tough weekend for the Austrian team if they don't solve their problems before the qualifying. Verstappen added:

"We also struggled on the long runs, so there are definitely a few things to improve on if we are going to be competitive in qualifying."

"Today we were just off the pace, however this is still the practice session so we will look at what we can do ahead of tomorrow and see how the weekend goes."