Max Verstappen finished Friday's practice sessions for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in second and third place. In both sessions, the four-time world champion was less than two tenths behind Charles Leclerc, who set the benchmark on both occasions.
Red Bull is not immediately standing out from the rest of the field as it did in Malaysia, for example, but Verstappen is nevertheless largely satisfied with the early signs from the RB22 in Texas.
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Max Verstappen slams “unacceptable” bumps at Austin F1 track: “It's out of control”
"It's been a positive start to the weekend. This track is never easy when it comes to finding the right compromise between the low and high-speed corners", the Dutchman said after FP2.
"The bumps make it even more difficult, so you’re trying to find a good balance in the car and get into a rhythm. That’s what we’ve been working on between FP1 and FP2. There’s still a bit more work to do to fine-tune that balance, but it wasn’t a bad day at all."
In practical terms, this means teams have to find a compromise in two different ways this weekend. Given the varied layout of the Circuit of the Americas, the first concerns the balance between high-speed and low-speed corners. Based on the GPS data, Red Bull appears competitive in the high-speed sections, making technical director Pierre Wache very clear about what needs to improve.
"It's clearly the low speed performance that we are focused on at the moment. Low speed is the key for us."
That is reflected in the data. Comparing the fastest laps of Leclerc, Antonelli and Verstappen, the slowest corners on the circuit are predominantly coloured red – in other words, Ferrari territory. Leclerc is strong both on the brakes and on the exit of Turn 1, and shows the same pattern at Turn 11, the slow left-hander before the long straight.
At the end of that long straight – just before the braking point – Verstappen is almost a tenth ahead of Leclerc's time, while Antonelli is more than two tenths ahead. However, Verstappen loses considerable ground through Turns 12 to 16, another slower section of the circuit.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
This underlines Wache's comments, although the challenge in Austin is not just about finding the right balance between different types of corners. Equally important is the compromise between outright performance and a car that can cope reasonably well with the bumps, which Verstappen described as "unacceptable" and "out of control" during Thursday's media day.
"The car reacts to those bumps how you would expect, it's jumping a lot", Wache said when asked how the RB22 is dealing with the track conditions.
"The track is massively bumpy, especially at Turn 1 under braking. You have to be very careful. But yeah, that’s the problem with this type of set-up that we are using. It is not as stiff as last year, but also not so far [away from that]. The car is not very compliant on the bumps here."
By using the term set-up, Wache is not referring specifically to Red Bull's choices, but to the current generation of F1 cars. In theory, these should be slightly more comfortable over the bumps than the ground-effect cars of recent years, but Verstappen explained on Thursday that the opposite is actually the case.
Thanks to active aerodynamics and straight mode, the cars rise slightly on the straights. This limits wear on the skid blocks and gives teams the freedom to push the limits even further in terms of ride height. As a result, the ride height is low under braking and through the corners, precisely the areas where the Circuit of the Americas is extremely bumpy.
According to Wache, improving the car's behaviour over those bumps and its low-speed performance are Red Bull's two main priorities ahead of qualifying.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
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