Pierre Waché, Red Bull’s technical director, explains the mediocre results of Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar in China. On Friday, the drivers qualified in P8 and P10 respectively for the sprint race. Both reached SQ3, but could not match the speed of the other top teams. The gap to polesitter George Russell – over 1.7 seconds – is dire. According to Waché, Red Bull has not yet fully cracked the F1 regulations.
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Max Verstappen was critical of his RB22 after the sprint qualifying. A complaint over the team radio led to apologies from the team management. Speaking to the media, Verstappen summarized a ‘disastrous’ Friday, where the car was helpless against the competition due to a lack of grip in the corners. Pierre Waché explained in more detail where it went wrong for the Dutchman.
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“Our setup for the sprint qualifying did not bring the desired results,” he admitted. “We need to analyze our performance and see how we can improve for the sprint race and qualifying. As a team, we are learning more and more and improving week after week. We have already taken positive steps to improve energy management and have made adjustments to the chassis based on what we learned in Australia,” Waché added. “Red Bull is making progress, but we are not quite there yet. Tomorrow’s sessions will provide important lessons that will bring us closer to our goal.”
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