Friday at Suzuka was not easy for anyone, as the four red flags during the second free practice session severely limited the time available to work on the cars. And if there’s someone who’s clearly had to put in extra effort on setup in the early races of the season, it’s undoubtedly Red Bull and Max Verstappen, still dealing with an RB21 that is more temperamental than expected.
After finishing the morning session in fifth place, already half a second behind, the four-time world champion managed only nine laps in the afternoon. So, the eighth place at 0.556 seconds behind Oscar Piastri’s best time might not be representative of Red Bull’s true potential on the undulating Japanese circuit. But it’s at least curious that, after struggling a lot with the RB21, Liam Lawson immediately set the fifth fastest time when jumping into the Racing Bulls, proving just how tricky the Milton Keynes-built car can be.
Although it’s certainly hard to make a proper judgment today, Max didn’t seem too satisfied with this opening day of the Japanese GP: “Of course, it was a bit chaotic for everyone with the red flags. And so we, like everyone else, weren’t able to complete everything we needed to do. But today was quite difficult for me, because I tried many different things on the car. But it seems like a lot of those things aren’t working at the moment. And yes, it was quite hard to put a lap together: you need a lot of confidence and at the moment it doesn’t feel like I can use it, so we still have some work to do.”
During the day, Max Verstappen complained that his RB21 was flexing in certain situations. He confirmed the issue during the usual post-session interviews, adding that the Milton Keynes engineers are still looking for answers: “We’re working on it. Maybe I felt it a bit more here, there’s some flexing in different parts of the track. So yes, it’s something we’re looking into.”
Several drivers pointed out the high tire degradation, but according to Verstappen, the few laps completed today didn’t allow for a clear picture: “I was on the softs, which require very careful management, you can’t push much with that tire. And then I only did three laps, so I didn’t get a good read. I think tomorrow in FP3 many teams will try to do more long runs with the time available. But yeah, it wasn’t an easy day,” he concluded.
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