The first day of training at the Grand Prix of Spain was more mixed for Red Bull. Max Verstappen in free training ran in third place on Friday, but was 0.310 seconds behind the best time of Oscar Piatri in the McLaren. Team colleague Yuki Tsunoda did not get past 13th with 0.923 seconds behind.
“I mean, we already had worse freestyle,” says Verstappen after training. “I was a little more satisfied with the car. We are not yet where we want to be, but it was definitely a little more positive.”
Helmut Marko also comments quite positively at Sky and says: “We haven’t had such a good Friday for a long time.”
A clear progress compared to the past weekends – but not yet the level that Verstappen is aiming for: “I want a better feeling of the car. But I also had on the freely on which we completely go wrong.
Horner expects McLaren
Team boss Christian Horner carefully expresses himself optimistically, but refers to the strength of the competition: “You have to say that McLaren will probably be the favorite at the weekend. They were incredibly strong in all previous races.”
The Brit takes hope from the appearance in Imola, where Verstappen won: “We had a great pace and were able to win the race. But at these temperatures they will be super competitive.”
According to Marko, Red Bull himself “still have to find small improvements”, you want to record it in qualifying with McLaren. But he noticed one thing: “It looks like Piatri is the faster in qualifying. In the Longrun, interestingly, it was Norris,” said the Austrian.
“So that plays very well into the cards when we can switch in between. But it gets very tight, we saw that, it will take place again in the hundredth of the area.”
Tsunoda struggles: no mistake, but slowly
Yuki Tsunoda, who had to fight again, is much less satisfied: “To be honest, it’s pretty hard. It was not that I had made a rough mistake – but I was still clearly behind the others,” says the Japanese.
“If I had made a mistake and then this result comes out, I would actually be satisfied. But it wasn’t like that. So the night will probably be longer than usual.”
Particularly frustrating for Tsunoda: “At the moment it is not really clear why. The car is there, everything is there – I try my best to find a solution.”
It should be mentioned that Tsunoda continues to have the same package as Verstappen after his accident in the qualifying of Imola. “How far this is a handicap is difficult to say,” says Marko. “But the car is certainly not at the level as it is from Max.”
New front wing rule without impact?
An important topic on Friday was also the new FIA technical guideline around the front wings. According to Verstappen, however, it had no big influence: “If you look at the times – not really. But to be honest, I didn’t expect that either,” he says. And Marko also has to see: “The jump that some saw there has failed.”
The starting point for the further weekend is clear: Red Bull is closer than last, but McLaren currently seems to be ahead. It remains to be seen whether the bulls can beat back on Saturday.