Red Bull tried to keep their feet on the ground and not get carried away by emotions after the first day of the Formula 1 Australian GP. Both Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar faced problems, but remained optimistic for the rest of the weekend.
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In the second free practice session, the four-time champion ended up having a run-off and escaped a crash. But because of this, there was some damage to the car that the team will have to deal with before the next activities in Melbourne.
“In FP1 we managed to complete a good number of laps, but in FP2 we encountered some problems. We are working to get the car setup right and we had a bit of difficulty with grip, in addition to having gone off track a few times,” he said.
“We didn’t have a full day of clean track, but in terms of pace, we are where I expected. There is still a lot of work to do and we will analyze what worked and what we can improve overnight. That is the reality at the moment,” he continued.
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Meanwhile, Hadjar believes that the Austrian team will be able to find solutions to the problems faced on the first day.
“In our first session of the season, everything went well. The reliability of the power unit was good and it remained stable throughout the day. We faced some problems in FP2, where we had difficulties with tire distribution, which made it quite complicated to do consistent laps. It’s never going to be perfect on the first day, so we’re going to analyze the situation and resolve the problems for tomorrow.”
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