Max Verstappen “not entirely happy” with Friday car setup

Max Verstappen has said that he was “not entirely happy” with the setup of his Red Bull Racing RB15 during Friday practice at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix but pleased overall with where they are at.

The Dutchman finished with the second fastest time during FP1 behind Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas but could not get any higher than fifth behind both Silver Arrows and Ferrari drivers, just over a tenth off Sebastian Vettel, and half a second quicker than teammate Alex Albon.
 
"Overall, it was a pretty decent Friday,” said Verstappen.
 
“I'm not entirely happy with the balance yet and there are of course still some things we need to look at and do better but overall I'm pretty pleased.”
 
Verstappen feels that Mercedes’ impressive display’s from Bottas and Lewis Hamilton during practice have made them the team to beat for the weekend.
 
“Mercedes look very strong here again and will be hard to beat but I still think it will be close tomorrow,” he added.
 
“We will analyse the tyre data later today but overall there are no real surprises.
 
“The soft is quick over one lap and on race runs it drops off as expected."
 
Albon, who finished sixth in FP2 also expects more to come from his side with a bit more “fine tuning”, having struggled with tyres and dust on track.
 
"It was tricky out there but overall today was good and we're getting there,” said Albon.
 
“It's difficult to get the tyres working and there's quite a lot of dust down so that's why we saw a lot of cars spinning.
 
“The balance was ok and we know we need to improve a little bit here and there but Max looked quick so let's see how things go tomorrow.
 
“I think I've got a little bit of fine tuning to do on my side, especially in sector three, but we're chipping away.
 
“The Ferraris will of course be quick in qualifying but let's see where we are come qualifying."