Red Bull Racing analyzed the difficulties faced in the Sprint qualifying for the Formula 1 Chinese GP, in which its drivers were far from the top positions on the grid.
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The team’s technical director, Pierre Waché, explained that the car’s preparation before the session did not go as expected, which ended up compromising performance on track: “Our setup for the Sprint qualifying didn’t work as we would have liked, so we need to analyze our performance and see how we can improve for the Sprint race and for the qualifying session for the GP,” he stated.
In the session held in Shanghai this Friday, Max Verstappen secured only eighth position, while Isack Hadjar was tenth. Both finished more than a second and a half behind the best lap recorded by George Russell, from Mercedes.
Despite the lower-than-expected result, Waché highlighted that the team has identified progress since the previous round in Melbourne. According to the engineer, Red Bull has already achieved advances in energy management and also in chassis performance, based on information collected at the Australian GP.
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“We are understanding more and evolving week after week. We have already taken positive steps to improve energy management and have also made advances in the chassis based on what we learned in Australia,” he added.
Even with this progress, the official recognized that the team has not yet reached the desired performance level and hopes to extract important lessons in the next sessions of the weekend: “We are evolving, but we are not yet where we want to be. Tomorrow’s sessions will bring important lessons to help us get closer to our goal,” Waché concluded.
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