Max Verstappen says RB21 ‘still not quick enough’ after first day of Abu Dhabi GP

Max Verstappen said the Red Bull was ‘still not quick enough’ but in general was fairly happy with the team’s first day of running in Abu Dhabi.

The Dutchman was P2 in both sessions but crucially trailing Lando Norris, the one man he has to beat to have any hope of winning a fifth world title.

Max Verstappen casts verdict after first day of Abu Dhabi GP

The first day of running is always unlikely to produce a perfect car but Red Bull has been particularly strong this year at maximising their Friday efforts.

Speaking after he stepped out of the car, Verstappen admitted they needed to be “a little bit faster” but overall seemed pleased with the team’s starting point.

“It went pretty okay in our practice sessions,” he said. “I was fairly happy with the car today, we just probably needed to be a little bit faster.

“We were in a decent window, but I still think not quite quick enough. It seems like there is a decent gap that we need to close but we still need to work on the race pace, so let’s see how much we can find overnight.

“The ride has been tricky and the single laps and long runs need to be a bit better, but let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

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Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who also serves as Head of Racing, was equally optimistic, stating it was “business as usual” despite the title pressure.

“It was generally a productive day with Max: we focused a little bit less on single lap performance for high fuel sustainable running, which now gives us a bit more data heading into Sunday. I think that has been proven useful as the tyres were a little bit more vulnerable compared to what we were perhaps expecting.

“It looks like front right graining is a problem for the field, so we need to analyse how we improve the longevity of this tyre heading into Sunday. Degradation is a bit higher than expected, so whilst we thought it would have been a relatively straight forward one stop, there’s a question mark over that now.

“We really need to understand how many stops it is going to be and how we will look after our tyres. The mood in the Team is really good, it has been business as usual for us since we arrived and that is how we’ve approached the last nine or ten races since the shutdown.

“We’ll continue to do our thing and follow our process and the end result will look after itself. Max is doing well in the car and we will not give up until the checkered flag is waved.”