Verstappen's long run may be hiding how big Red Bull's problem is

Max Verstappen had a hefty list of complaints for Red Bull Racing after second practice in Monaz, although the race pace revealed something else.

The Austrian team had to do without Verstappen in first practice, as Ayumi Iwasa was given track time. The four-time world champion watched from the sidelines while Iwasa and Liam Lawson were responsible for gathering data.

Long runs in first practice should always be taken with a grain of salt, as the teams are still feeling things out in the weekend’s opening session. Especially at Monza: a very “low-energy” circuit where teams have to figure out how to best handle the battery and energy management.

Early on Friday in Italy it looked like Mercedes and McLaren had this quickly under control, and the same went for Ferrari. The three top teams were very close to each other. Kimi Antonelli was just a whisker faster than Charles Leclerc — by a thousandth.

Lawson was the only one of the Red Bull duo who managed to put together something of a long run. Iwasa was hampered by the events in practice and couldn’t do a consistent run. He did do qualifying runs. That also seemed to be the New Zealander’s priority during the first half of the session, as he was at the back of the top four early in the afternoon with an average of 1:27.224 on the soft tyre compared to Antonelli’s 1:26.485 on the medium — about eight tenths slower.

Verstappen got back behind the wheel of the RB22 during second practice, but immediately made it clear he wasn’t happy. There seemed to be all sorts of issues with the car, which once again lacked balance and grip. The Dutchman had already predicted before the weekend that the energy management would be “painful,” and now the balance problems compounded his misery. Compared to Lawson, Verstappen did a short long run.

Normally, Verstappen is the one who does the really long long runs, but this time he told Gianpiero Lambiase that the car performed even worse with a heavy fuel load. In the end, Verstappen did one long run of five laps on the medium tyre, while Red Bull put Lawson to work with two intensive stints on the hard tyre. In his first stint Lawson was about five tenths off Verstappen; in his second stint he was faster than his teammate.

Verstappen’s deficit isn’t shockingly large — although his stint is compared with drivers who ran the hard and soft tyres.

As Verstappen said on the radio, the car felt worse with a higher fuel load, making it unclear whether he did a genuine high-fuel run on the mediums or not.

On the hard tyre, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were slower than him, while George Russell and Kimi Antonelli were the two fastest drivers over the long runs in FP2.

Ferrari got close to Mercedes, although Leclerc was a touch slower compared to FP1. Red Bull, however, seems to be the team with the most homework for Saturday. They still have one more practice session to get the car in order for qualifying.