Did the high temperatures recorded on the first day of the French Grand Prix put Red Bull in crisis? Looking at the time table from the second free practice session, one would think that Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez could almost be forced to live through a weekend on the defensive, but there is much more data to look at.
The Dutch driver, in fact, finished the second session on Friday with the third fastest time, a 1:33.077, being the first of all the drivers who did not lower the 1:33 barrier, just over half a second from the record of Carlos Sainz.
However, if we focus on race pace, the Red Bull, at least Verstappen , seems to be the benchmark here in France. The reigning world champion posted good and consistent times, although he radioed the team to focus on a single lap to avoid having to start the race from the second row of the grid.
At the end of the session, the Dutch driver made no secret of his disappointment after a Friday with some unexpected setbacks, complaining of understeer which he seemed unable to control.
“In FP2 it was a bit difficult for us, we couldn’t find the balance we wanted, but we were also trying some new things on the car. Now we will analyze all the data and tomorrow we will try to be closer than we have been today.”
Despite the momentary disappointment, Verstappen admitted that he was satisfied with his race pace, although he acknowledged that tire management on Sunday will be crucial.
“The long runs haven’t been too bad, but the tires in this heat are really hard to judge. We know there’s a lot of work to do.”
“This track is very difficult for the tires and it is not possible to make a comparison with what happened in Austria. In general, we need a few more laps to try to understand the situation better,” added the Red Bull driver .
On the other side of the garage, Sergio Pérez was more disappointed than his teammate. The Mexican did not shine in either FP1 or FP2.
“I didn’t feel comfortable with the car and I think we have a lot of work to do tonight to try and maximize the potential going into qualifying and the race.”
“I was able to do some very short stints on the soft tyres. Hopefully we can put it all together tomorrow and be in contention,” concluded the energy drink team driver.
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