Australian F1 GP | Red Bull, Verstappen must catch up: "This is our reality right now."

Melbourne – A subdued start to the season for Max Verstappen, making its official debut in this new regulatory era, which was decidedly not appreciated by the Dutchman.

The four-time world champion finishes the first free practice session with the third best time behind the fastest Ferrari, in command with a one-two led by Charles Leclerc. The RB22 He stopped half a second behind the Monegasque prancing horse, completing the "podium" of the first free practice session of the season. However, there were several problems in FP2, where Max only set the sixth best time, six tenths behind the McLaren of the leader Oscar piastri.

The RB22 encountered quite a few problems: the number 3 car remained in the pits for much of the session due to an issue with the electrical control unit and gearbox on his car, which was left stationary in the pit lane. This was a significant setback for Verstappen, who lost valuable time for the race simulation: he ran very few laps on the C4 tyre – the medium compound for the weekend – and the gravel excursion didn't help either. On the other side of the garage, however, Isaac Hadjar, debuting in Red Bull, completed a race pace simulation with a time gap of one second over the McLaren leader. The Franco-Algerian also held his own in the final timesheets, placing fourth in FP1 and ninth in FP2.

Verstappen: "I'm not surprised by our results."

"In FP1 we completed a good number of laps, while in FP2 we encountered some issues. We're working on finding the right set-up for the car; we struggled a bit with grip and even ended up in the gravel," Verstappen explained at the end of the day. "We didn't have a completely linear day of testing, but pace-wise, we're where I expected to be. There's still a lot of work to do: we'll analyze overnight what worked and what we can improve; that's the reality at the moment."

It's definitely too early to draw conclusions, but it is in Australia – first race of the year – the teams begin to show their cards, to outline the hierarchy of power on the track, at least for the first part of the season. The impressions following the tests in Bahrain prove to be well-founded: it seems to be the three-pointed star of Toto wolff, the Mercedes, the one most ready for the new regulatory era; follow Ferrari, McLaren e Red Bull to complete the lineup for a four-way battle for the top three steps of the podium. There are still several issues to be resolved, especially regarding the hybrid power units in the new regulations. Verstappen has never held back in his criticism, condemning the introduction of electric power in Formula 1. Certainly, the Red Bull Power Train targata Ford is doing better than the previous partners of the Austrian team – he knows something about it Fernando Alonso – but there is still a lot to work on, as he explained Paul Monaghan, chief engineer of the team of Laurent Mekies.

Monaghan: "Everything can be fixed: we'll be ready for qualifying."

In Milton Keynes, as always, they will try to make a significant step forward between Friday and Saturday, a crucial aspect in the previous regulation era, especially in 2025, when the car was far from dominant: "Today we ran two cars with our power unit for the first time in a race weekend," said Monaghan, "so we did a fantastic job as both cars were competitive in FP1. With everything new, we are constantly gaining knowledge: it's easy to make mistakes and difficult to be perfect, so we will learn the lessons for tomorrow and make sure we are ready for qualifying."

“The balance was good, but there were a couple of issues in FP2. The ECU misfired in pit lane on the No. 3 car. We recovered it and then couldn't get it out of gear, but we fixed it and sent the car back out on track. Max also had a moment when he ended up in the gravel, but everything is fixable and we'll be ready well in advance for FP3 tomorrow morning. It's hard to say who will be ahead tomorrow, and it's beyond our control what the others do. All we can do is get the best out of our car and see where we end up. Our main goal is to figure out how to do as many laps as possible while maximizing the car's performance in qualifying.”