Red Bull seeks answers after Sprint qualifying: ‘Car not behaving’

11:36, 08 Nov

Updated: 12:21, 08 Nov

bySamson Ero

Red Bull Racing technical director Pierre Wache has admitted the team is facing a mystery with its car after the Brazil Sprint qualifying outing.

“The car isn’t behaving as we expected here, especially on the Soft tyre.”

- Pierre Wache

Reflecting on the session via the team’s press release, the British engineer confirmed the team is investigating several issues that contributed to the lack of pace experienced during the Sprint qualifying at Interlagos, before highlighting specific challenges with the RB21 car’s performance throughout the session.

Wache stated, “We are looking into a lot of things overnight to see if we need to change something. It was a difficult day today. To be honest, the Sprint format always throws up challenges across the weekend. The car isn’t behaving as we expected here, especially on the Soft tyre.”

“On that compound, the car feels like something is wrong with it and is not performing properly. We are looking into many things overnight to see if we need to make changes.”

Max Verstappen during the Brazil GP Sprint qualifying - Image credit: Red Bull Content Pool

The 50-year-old concluded by stating the team remains focused on having both its cars in a better working window ahead of the competitive sessions of the Brazil GP weekend.

“We’re investigating what the issue is — it’s affecting both cars — and we’re aiming to have the car in a better window for the rest of the weekend.”

During the Sprint qualifying session in Sao Paulo, both Max Verstappen and Yuki Tsunoda endured relatively challenging outings on their qualifying runs, with both drivers detailing their frustrations over the car's lack of grip.

The four-time world champion, despite advancing into the final stages of qualifying, could only muster a sixth-place starting spot and was over three tenths off the time of Lando Norris, who claimed pole position.

Yuki Tsnuoda suffered a first-round elimination at the Brazil GP Sprint qualifying - Photo: Race Pictures

Yuki Tsunoda, on his part, endured a forgettable Friday, crashing in the single practice session of the weekend before suffering a first-round elimination during Sprint qualifying.

Wache: All good learning for the weekend ahead

Wache, however, expressed optimism amid the challenges the Red Bull team faced following Sprint qualifying. The British engineer described it as valuable learning ahead of Saturday’s action at Interlagos.

“This is all good learning for tomorrow, for Qualifying and then for the race. Finally, well done to the team in the garage, who did a great job repairing Yuki’s car so quickly in FP1, giving him the chance to get back out there and collect important data," he concluded.