Max Verstappen

Verstappen makes worrying observation about RB21 handling in Spa free practice

14:08, 25 Jul

Updated: 14:10, 25 Jul

bySamson Ero

It wasn’t an altogether smooth Free Practice for Red Bull Racing, as Max Verstappen voiced his complaints about the RB21 car during the session. The Dutch driver took to the radio to express his frustration with the rotation issues around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.

The four-time world champion, who was working with a new race engineer for the weekend—Simon Rennie—was quick to voice his concerns after setting a lap time during the session. Specifically, Verstappen appeared quickest in the first sector of the track before losing about seven-tenths of a second to Oscar Piastri in the final two sectors of the Spa circuit.

Taking to the radio to share his thoughts following his lap time, Verstappen said:

“Still, uh, a bit weird for me mid-corner. I just can’t really get good rotation.”

“It’s almost like I am three-wheeling as well.”

While Verstappen did have his complaints, the 27-year-old still managed to set the second-fastest time of the session, albeit four-tenths behind Piastri.

Red Bull speaks on Verstappen’s upgrades at Spa

Red Bull Racing Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan earlier admitted to taking a calculated risk with the upgrades to Max Verstappen’s car. The Milton Keynes team had opted for a modification to its car, despite having limited time to test, considering it’s a sprint weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The team had brought in a revised front wing and an updated sidepod—something Monaghan was upbeat about and believed would translate into performance.

"The front wing is part of an ongoing development process. Internal research does not stop. When you are making progress in those areas — and we have great people in that field — we produce a new front wing. We had the time and the money for it, and the step forward is big enough."

"We also expect some performance gains from the sidepod. We had a gap of three weeks between Silverstone and Belgium, during which you're not doing nothing. So it’s not about patching things up—we’re doing this because we believe the car will be faster."

"If it’s wet in FP1, then we might have to scrap it, but that applies to everyone. We’re doing this because we have confidence we can integrate the update during a race weekend. If we have that confidence, then we go ahead with it."