Max Verstappen admits Red Bull problem will be ‘hard to fix’

Max Verstappen has once again played down Red Bull’s chances at this weekend’s season-opening F1 Australian Grand Prix.

The four-time world champion, who had already ruled out any hopes of Red Bull contesting for victory heading into the Melbourne weekend, was only seventh-fastest at the end of Friday practice.

Verstappen was one of several drivers who struggled with the handling of their cars, with his best time coming on the medium tyre, having aborted an attempt to complete a soft-tyre qualifying simulation run in FP2.

“To be honest, the balance wasn’t even completely out. No massive or major problems,” Verstappen, who is aiming to win a fifth successive world title this year, said.

“But somehow, the grip was not coming alive. I was just struggling on all four tyres, really, in Sector 1 and the last sector. That means, of course, that were are not really up there at the moment.”

Asked whether he has a clear direction on what to work on overnight, Verstappen replied: “The problem is that it’s not really like I have major balance problems. I think it will be a bit hard to fix.

“It’s also nothing that I didn’t expect when I arrived here. I’m not positively or negatively surprised with the pace we are showing.

“We just have to make sure that we find a bit more pace, but at the moment we are definitely lacking a bit to fight up front.”

Read more: Long run data analysis establishes McLaren and Ferrari pecking order in Australia

Liam Lawson concedes he was ‘just too slow’

Verstappen’s new teammate, Liam Lawson, was down in 17th and over half a second adrift of the Dutchman, having also trailed him by more than seven tenths in FP1.

Reflecting on his day, Lawson admitted he was “just too slow”.

“[I’m] comfortable [in the car] – just too slow,” the New Zealander said. “We obviously have a lot of work to do overnight.

“Day one, on a new track, we were expecting to have some work to do, but probably not this much. We’ll work on it overnight and then try and improve it for tomorrow.”

Asked if he understands why it was a tougher day than expected, he responded: "Not really. I think if we knew that we’d know how to fix it as well.

“In general just grip, when we need to use it on that short run, but then in general our long-run pace was slow as well. We’ll obviously work on it.”