Max Verstappen had a challenging start to the Formula 1 Japanese GP weekend, after two free practice sessions with unstable performance. The Red Bull Racing driver finished FP1 in seventh place and dropped to tenth in FP2, highlighting balance and grip difficulties in the car.
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“I had two extremes today, and that ended up affecting our lap time,” said the seven-time champion.
Between sessions, the team tried to adjust the car, but new issues emerged, making it difficult to achieve consistent performance: “We made some changes between sessions and tried to solve one problem and then something different appeared, which was quite difficult to solve”.
The Dutchman highlighted that the focus during the night will be identifying the source of the problems, especially in the areas of balance and grip: “We need to understand a bit more our problems and where they come from. We were lacking balance and grip, and now there’s quite a bit of work to understand why we’re facing these difficulties,” he commented.
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Verstappen also pointed out specific sectors of the Suzuka circuit that need attention. The driver noticed performance loss mainly in the first sector and in the medium and high-speed zones: “It’s also about understanding why we’re so far behind in sector 1 and at medium to high speeds,” he added.
Despite the difficulties, Verstappen maintains confidence that adjustments in the night session can improve performance for the qualifying session: “We’ll work on it during the night, but I don’t think it’s a particularly easy fix,” he concluded.
The start of the weekend makes it clear that Red Bull will have to face an intensive process of analysis and fine-tuning so that the car can perform as expected. The team needs to align balance, grip, and speed across all zones of the circuit to maintain competitiveness and try for a good grid position.
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