Red Bull voice alarming concerns despite significant Suzuka upgrades

Max Verstappen ended the opening day down in 10th, a full 1.3 seconds off a resurgent McLaren led by Oscar Piastri, while Isack Hadjar languished in 15th, 1.6 seconds off the pace.

"You can see from our pace that the car isn’t performing to the usual standards that we set ourselves and the overall lap time is not good," Red Bull’s Chief Engineer of Car Engineering Paul Monaghan said.

Monaghan ultimately stressed that the upgrades introduced on the RB22 this weekend are delivering the expected gains, but admitted there are still several problem areas on the car that need to be addressed.

The deficit to Mercedes was striking and underlined why Verstappen is already sounding the alarm. That said, Red Bull appeared to be on a different programme, standing out as the only frontrunning outfit not running the medium compound.

Verstappen also completed the longest stint of anyone in the comparison, but the numbers tell a worrying story. His average lap time settled at 1:36.456 — roughly four tenths quicker than teammate Isack Hadjar, yet over a second adrift of both George Russell and Kimi Antonelli, who were running on mediums. Crucially, all the top teams carried out their long runs within the same window of the session, making the comparison directly representative.