News summary
- Red Bull identified balance problems with Max Verstappen’s RB22 during Friday practice at Monza, similar to the issues seen at Zandvoort.
- Verstappen finished 9th in FP2, while Liam Lawson was 12th after the 2 Red Bull drivers followed different programs across the day.
- Pierre Waché says Red Bull has “some decisions to make” on setup and car components to reduce the gap to Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren.
Red Bull ended Friday at the Italian GP with plenty of work to do after struggling to find the right balance with the RB22 at Monza.
Technical director Pierre Waché said the team already has a clearer understanding of the problems affecting Max Verstappen but must now decide which setup direction and components to use before Saturday’s qualifying session.
Verstappen did not take part in FP1, with Red Bull handing the car to rookie Ayumu Iwasa for the mandatory rookie running. Liam Lawson, meanwhile, continued alongside the Dutchman after replacing the injured Isack Hadjar for a second consecutive weekend.
Lawson produced an encouraging 4th-place finish in FP1, while Verstappen returned to the car for FP2 and set a 1:23.377 to finish 9th. Lawson ended the second session in 12th.
The result confirmed that Red Bull remained some way behind the leading Mercedes and Ferrari cars. George Russell topped a closely contested FP2 ahead of Charles Leclerc and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, with Verstappen more than 0.8s off the pace.
“This morning, we started with Ayumu in place of Max and, once again, he did a great job. He had quite a lot to do, with a lot of data to collect from the aerodynamic tests, and then he tried to give some guidance in terms of setup for Max. He did a good job and we know we can count on him,” Waché said.
With Verstappen back behind the wheel in FP2, Red Bull continued its aerodynamic testing before encountering problems similar to those experienced at the previous race.
“With Max back in the car this afternoon, we continued the aerodynamic tests, just to check a few things, and I think we went in the right direction. Then we had some balance problems with Max’s car, a little bit like in Zandvoort, so we need to try to understand why this is happening,” Waché explained.
“We evaluated a few things, so now we have some decisions to make to correct the problems for tomorrow through the setup and car components,” he added.
The comments underline the technical challenge facing Red Bull at a circuit where straight-line speed, aerodynamic efficiency and confidence through the high-speed corners are particularly important.
Waché was more positive about Lawson’s second consecutive weekend with Red Bull. The New Zealander had only one practice session at Zandvoort because of the Sprint format, but he had the full Friday schedule at Monza.
“For Liam, it was another productive day, and it was good for him to have more time in the car than he had in practice at Zandvoort. Having that continuity between sessions really helps, and he did a very good job again today,” Waché said.
Red Bull now faces a busy evening of analysis. Verstappen has already identified the lack of balance as one of the main weaknesses of the RB22, while Waché believes the team can still make progress before qualifying.
“We have a lot of work to do tonight to try to reduce the gap to the leaders before qualifying. Normally, we have a little more difficulty over one lap and we are better in race pace. So, we’ll see what happens tomorrow,” he concluded.
The Friday data therefore leaves Red Bull with a clear priority: find a more predictable balance and extract more one-lap performance from the RB22. Verstappen remains hopeful that the gap can be reduced, but the team will need to make the right choices overnight to put itself back into contention.
