Suzuka, Friday evening. In the Red Bull garage, there’s nervousness as Max Verstappen (eighth in the FP2 session standings) complains about the car’s behavior, which is far from optimal. “It seems like it’s bending,” is his analysis. “On this track, you need a lot of confidence in the car; it’s not easy to drive above the problems.” Helmut Marko is in a bad mood: “It’s not the first time that good simulator feedback has been contradicted by the track. We’ll need to review some procedures.”
The work done overnight between Suzuka and Milton Keynes was particularly long as the engineers intervened on many setup parameters. “We flipped the car,” explained Christian Horner, “and when I say flipped, I mean we also worked on the weight distribution and the downforce levels, a significant job. In the end, Max managed to get the car into the right window, and he was able to do that incredible lap you saw.”
“I was worried until the end because we had problems in the last chicane since the first laps on Friday,” continued Horner, “but everything went perfectly. Max was exceptional, we know he’s number one, but you need to have a car under you, especially in the first sector. Max worked a lot with his engineers, explaining the difficulties he had in turn 9 yesterday, and we managed to find a good balance in that sector too.”
“We experimented a lot,” confirmed Max Verstappen, “and in the end, we managed to find a balance that made the car more drivable, let’s say good enough to allow me to push harder.”
The euphoria for an unexpected result lasted a little longer than usual. “We know that in the race, it will be very tough with the McLarens,” Christian Horner commented, smiling. “But we’ll worry about that tonight and tomorrow. For now, let’s celebrate this pole.” In Red Bull, they are aware that under normal conditions, it will be very difficult to counter Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in the 53 laps of the race; the only variable that could mess up their plans is the track. “It should rain in the morning, then we’ll see if the track dries up or not,” Verstappen commented. “Starting in first place is still the best place to be.”
At Red Bull, the world championship goal is still alive. The start of the season marked by McLaren’s performance is a reality, but no one in the team feels out of the game. “So far, we haven’t been able to compete,” Max admitted, “but we’re definitely not sitting back accepting the situation. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow, but regardless of the result we get from this weekend, we know we’re in for a long season, and it’s crucial to always bring points home. Everyone in the team is aware that there are still problems to solve, but we’re still at the start of the season, and we’ll try to do our best.”
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