Max Verstappen Seeks Solutions as Red Bull Struggles in Zandvoort Practice

Max Verstappen searching for explanations as Red Bull's pace falls short in Friday's Zandvoort practice

Max Verstappen acknowledges that Red Bull's performance was "a bit too slow" during Friday's practice sessions at Zandvoort.

Max Verstappen is looking for explanations after admitting that Red Bull was "a bit too slow" during the Friday practice session at the F1 Dutch Grand Prix.

The current world championship frontrunner, Verstappen, secured second place behind McLaren's Lando Norris during the first practice session at Zandvoort, which experienced variable weather conditions. In the second practice session, which was held in dry conditions, Verstappen ended up with the fifth-fastest time, trailing Mercedes' George Russell by 0.284 seconds.

Following the second practice session, Verstappen confessed, "In the first practice, we didn't manage to get much track time, but in the second practice, you could get a better sense of our position."

"We're somewhat lagging in both the short-term and long-term! There's definitely some work ahead of us."

"Currently, we don't have a definitive solution for how to enhance that particular aspect, but we will investigate further. It's simply a matter of being slightly too slow."

Since the Zandvoort circuit was reintroduced to the Formula 1 schedule in 2021, Verstappen hasn't lost a race there and is now aiming for his fourth straight win on his home track.

However, the three-time world champion enters the race without a victory in his last four attempts, with his most recent win occurring at the Spanish Grand Prix in June.

"This is consistent with our performance in the recent races, so it's not unexpected," he mentioned.

"We aim to enhance our performance slightly for Sunday's event."

Sergio Perez, who drives for Red Bull, finished 12th in the standings during the second practice session, clocking a time that was six-tenths of a second slower than his teammate Max

“We’ve been trying a lot of different things out there,” he said.

"In my opinion, our performance today was actually better than it appears on the score sheet. I made an error at Turn 12 and went off the track, which cost me a few tenths of a second."

"We definitely have some improvements to make, particularly in our long-run performance, to catch up with those in front of us. We've been using different strategies for each car, so tomorrow is going to be quite demanding."

Perez has needed to adapt to collaborating with a different race engineer since his usual engineer, Hugh Bird, will be absent for the next four races due to paternity leave.

He mentioned that having Richard Wood, also known as Woody, as the Race Engineer is somewhat unfamiliar for everyone.

"It’s something noticeable to me, but I believe each session will improve and we’ll become more accustomed to it."

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