Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson finished FP2 at the F1 Australian GP in seventh and 17th respectively, and while the Dutchman admitted that while there were no glaring issues in the Red Bull, they were just ‘lacking pace’.
The biggest headline in the Red Bull camp was the title team being outperformed by their sister team Racing Bulls. Headed by Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar, the duo finished the session with their Red Bull powered machinery in fourth and sixth.
Red Bull problems at the F1 Australian GP
Red Bull have seemingly struggled since the Bahrain pre-season test. Although tests can be deceiving, the Milton Keynes team admitted it didn’t run as smoothly as they expected and they would have to wait until Australia to figure out their place.
However, in the opening sessions around Albert Park the RB21 struggled with grip around various parts of the circuit and with overall pace. On a few occasions Verstappen’s RB21 lost the rear as it proved very snappy.
Max Verstappen admitted he wasn’t surprised by the issues in the car, while they weren’t severe, they put the team behind where they wanted to be. In the end he was 0.6s away from the top in FP2.
“To be honest, the balance wasn’t even completely out. No massive or major problems.
“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.”
Verstappen implied the issue is more than just a set-up problem, instead being systemic to the design of the RB21. He said, “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.”
Lawson’s issues
Liam Lawson is coming into 2025 with the pressure of being Max Verstappen’s teammate. The Kiwi is expected to hit the ground running in the title-winning team. However, he’s struggled to find the pace in comparison to Verstappen.
Lawson told the official F1 website he wasn’t uncomfortable in the car, instead just struggling with the overall pace, echoing the words of his teammate.
“[I’m] comfortable [in the car] – just too slow. 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.”
With McLaren and Ferrari leading the pack in both one-lap and race simulations, the fight at the front is going to be difficult to break into. FP3 will be Red Bull’s final chance to optimise the set-up ahead of the first qualifying session of the season.
