Verstappen: "Then Mercedes has to drive with less power and we have a change"

Max Verstappen told Ziggo Sport F1 cafe that he notices improvements in the RB16 of Red Bull Racing. The car is still far from perfect, but slowly, it is heading in the right direction.

Progress

"I notice that Red Bull has made progress. It's not yet exactly how I want it, especially in the slower corners. It's a bit short there, but it's going better than before," Verstappen said.

The Dutchman says the warm weather and wind didn't make it easy yesterday. "Saturday will be colder and the wind will change as well, perhaps the proportions will be different from now. I hoped it would also be warm tomorrow because then Mercedes will have to drive with less power and we have a better chance," Verstappen explains.

Not everything went smoothly

Verstappen drove the fastest time during the first free practice. However, in FP2 everything went a bit less easy. The Limburger tells that he actually wanted to drive more laps in the second free practice session than in the first. "We had tried some things with the set up in the first session and we had to repeat it in the afternoon. But then I wasn't happy with the balance and had to come in to change it."

During the second free practice, some things went wrong. Verstappen was stopped twice and there was also a red flag due to the crash of teammate Alexander Albon. "At my long run the team had forgotten to put something in the car, so I had to go back to the pits. In the end, I was still able to go outside on the mediums, luckily that went well", Verstappen ends.