Max Verstappen rolled into Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix with muted expectations, and Friday’s opening day did little to lift his spirits.
The four-time world champion, gunning for a fifth straight title with Red Bull, found himself stuck in seventh on the FP2 timesheets, a far cry from the front-running pace he’s used to.
His RB21, rather than feeling like a precision instrument in his hands, was more like a stubborn mule, refusing to grip the Albert Park asphalt.
Speaking after the session, Verstappen didn’t sugarcoat his day.
“To be honest, the balance wasn’t even completely out. No massive or major problems,” he 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 we are not really up there at the moment.”
A Tricky Fix and Tempered Hopes
Unlike some rivals wrestling with wild handling, Verstappen’s woes weren’t glaring – just elusive. His best lap came on medium tyres after he ditched a soft-tyre quali sim in FP2, leaving Red Bull scratching their heads.
When pressed on whether he’s got a fix in mind for overnight tweaks, he sounded less than hopeful.
“The problem is that it’s not really like I have major balance problems,” he explained. “I think it will be a bit hard to fix.”
No quick solutions here—just a vague sense of something missing. Still, he’s not shocked by the struggle.
“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.”
For a man who’s made winning look easy, this is a rare humble pie.
Lawson’s Rough Red Bull Debut
Verstappen’s teammate, semi-rookie Liam Lawson fared even worse, languishing in P17 at the end of the day – over half a second off Verstappen’s pace and a hefty seven-tenths behind in FP1.
The New Zealander didn’t beat around the bush.
“[I’m] comfortable [in the car] – just too slow,” he said bluntly. “We obviously have a lot of work to do overnight.”
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Lawson had braced for a learning curve on this new track, but not a cliff this steep.
“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 had cracked the code on why it’s so tough, he shrugged: “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.”
With both drivers floundering, Red Bull’s Melbourne mission looks like an uphill climb.
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