A long night on the simulator, with Jake Dennis busy in Milton Keynes and a direct bridge to Imola. At the end of the second free practice session, which saw Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in seventh and eighth place respectively, there was an animated briefing in the Red Bull garage.
The last time the team found itself in a scenario similar to the one seen yesterday in Imola was at Interlagos, in 2022. On that occasion, what complicated the situation the most was the sprint format, which at the time locked down the set-up after the FP1 session, and it was Mercedes who took advantage of it, ending the weekend with a sensational Russell-Hamilton double.
Unlike two years ago in Brazil, this weekend there is time to work on the single-seaters. On the one hand there are the comments from the riders, who complain about an unstable rear end, on the other the difficulties linked to different variables.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull RB20, in the gravel during Friday’s practice
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Yesterday in Imola there were two new developments: the wind which greatly influenced the behavior of some single-seaters, and in the case of Red Bull the updates introduced on the car. The basic setup may not have been best suited to these two variables. When things don’t go well with all the compounds it means there is a basic problem and the lack of balance was also confirmed by the top speed, which was not particularly brilliant.
For Verstappen and Perez the lap gap compared to Leclerc’s time was half a second, a margin confirmed by Checo also in the race pace, while in Max’s case the delay in the long run rose to six tenths. The difficulties for Verstappen emerged above all in the second sector, where he paid half a second compared to the partial obtained in that section by Lando Norris.
Red Bull RB20: here is the new front wing, but for now it hasn’t thrilled Max
Picture of: Giorgio Piola
In the middle of the FP2 session the engineers intervened with changes to the front wing and the torsion bar, non-detail changes, but the situation did not change. When Verstappen forced himself, giving the impression of having found his pace again, he found himself in the escape routes.
“I’m sure it will go better – commented Verstappen ironically – because I think it’s difficult to do worse than what we did in the FP2 session”. In the Red Bull garage they hope to straighten out the weekend, but today the track conditions (on the ‘wind’ front) will also be a little different. The sixty minutes available in the FP3 session will be crucial to understand if Verstappen and Perez will be in the game or if, sensationally, they will find themselves out of the fight for the podium.
“The ‘track position’ will be fundamental”, all the drivers underlined yesterday, indicating the starting position as crucial to aiming for a good result. In addition to the track layout, which limits the possibilities of overtaking only if those in front make a mistake, there will also be a practically standard race strategy.
Red Bull RB20: the very dense flow viz was also tested
Picture of: Giorgio Piola
The longest pit lane of the entire world championship brings the pit stop time to twenty-eight seconds, effectively imposing a single stop. However, there is no alarm on the wear front, according to Pirelli the 63 laps scheduled will be passable without difficulty with a medium-hard or soft-hard strategy. On this front, engineers will have little room to invent something.
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