How Red Bull evaluates the start of training at the Formula 1 race in Austin and where Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez still see some catching up to do.
In the end, Red Bull is 0.271 seconds behind the best time of the day in Austin: The team of Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen is the second force behind Ferrari in the other units at the USA Grand Prix on the Circuit of The Americas.
But Verstappen thinks he and his team started the race weekend “quite well”. He got along well with the Red Bull RB18 in the first session. “We tried a few things with the car and I think we were there from the start. That was very positive. We should look good.”
Due to the Pirelli tire test in the second session, however, you don’t have as much relevant data as you would normally get at a Formula 1 weekend. Therefore, the car’s behavior over the distance is still “more of a question mark,” said Verstappen. “But it will be fine, I think.”
What homework Red Bull still has for the Formula 1 race in Austin
According to Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Pérez, the racing team still has to rework the “balance between high and low speed” so that we can look better at tire wear. Then everything will fit together,” says Pérez. But he too is convinced that Red Bull will be “well positioned” at the decisive moment.
In any case, Verstappen does not see the missed relevant training time due to the tire test as a handicap for himself and his team: “It’s the same for everyone. We have some information from the first unit. And the car was already in a pretty good window of operation .”
Perhaps also because Verstappen familiarized himself with the track in Austin beforehand on a track walk – which he rarely does on a race weekend. So why in the US? “It was said that the track had been resurfaced in some places. I just wanted to take a look at the bumps,” he explains.
Postscript: “And after I had eaten a few steaks, such a little walk didn’t hurt!”