Max Verstappen finished the F1 Italian GP TL2 only in ninth position and acknowledged that Red Bull Racing still faces difficulties in finding the ideal car balance. The Dutchman only competed in the second session on Friday, after Ayumu Iwasa took his place in TL1.
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Verstappen completed thirty laps and recorded 1:23.377, staying far from the top positions. According to the four-time world champion, the team needs to find performance overnight to reduce the gap in the qualifying session, although there is an expectation of better performance in race pace.
“It was complicated to get the car balance right today, and we will need to work on that tomorrow to find a bit more lap time. Our gap to the leaders is still big, but I hope we can reduce it a bit in Q1 on a fast lap,” Verstappen said. He also highlighted that the behavior in longer stints is harder to predict.
Liam Lawson finished TL1 in fourth, but dropped to 12th in TL2, while completing 37 laps. The New Zealander explained that the team prioritized the ‘long runs’ and left the fast lap simulations in the background: “Compared to the leaders, we definitely can’t match what they can do in terms of downforce here,” he said.
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Iwasa, in turn, took advantage of TL1 to carry out aerodynamic tests and collect data before moving on to more performance-focused work. Pierre Waché, Red Bull’s director, praised the Japanese driver’s performance and stated that the team again found balance problems in Verstappen’s car, similar to those observed in Zandvoort.
Waché explained that some alternatives have already been evaluated and that Red Bull will have important decisions ahead: “We have a lot of work to do tonight to try to reduce the gap to the front before the qualifying session,” he concluded, also acknowledging that the team usually faces more difficulties on a fast lap and shows better performance in longer stints.
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