Verstappen: Red Bull 'too slow' in Las Vegas

It was hard to expect more from Red Bull in qualifying after a complicated start to the weekend for the Austrian team. On the Strip, the RB20 is penalized by a rear wing whose specificity harms its speed in a straight line. On a circuit like the one traced in the streets of the City of Vice, this is prohibitive in the exercise of the flying lap.

Max Verstappen thus had to settle for fifth place in qualifying, while his teammate Sergio Perez was once again eliminated in Q1 this year, with a poor 16th place on the starting grid. We're just a little bit too slow, we struggled to get the tyres working over a lap, and we're also too slow on the straights, especially in qualifying. ", Verstappen said after qualifying.

The Austrian team has nevertheless worked to shave off part of its rear wing, to the detriment of the effectiveness of its DRS. You can see it's been shortened a lot around the DRS flap, so when we open that flap we don't get the same as the others, which makes things a bit more complicated here. It's our fault, we know, it's a compromise we have, but I tried to do my best nonetheless " explains the triple world champion.

For the race, the wing deficit worries Verstappen less than the degradation of the tires. I think tomorrow the wing will be a bit more normal, because usually you don't use DRS every lap, so it's less of an issue. The question mark is how the tyres will behave for us, because for me at least, on my side, my two long runs weren't particularly good. Hopefully it will be a bit better in the race, but we'll see. »

The driver of the number 1 believes that the third place on the grid, obtained by a surprising Pierre Gasly (Alpine) was playable: " It was quite close for P3, some small details that could have been improved a little bit maybe, but overall I'm happy with the laps. "This Sunday (Saturday night in Las Vegas) he will share the third line with his runner-up in the championship, Lando Norris (McLaren). If he does not concede more than two points to the Briton, the Dutchman will be crowned world champion for a fourth time this weekend.

The race will start at 7am (French time) this Sunday. The Grand Prix will be broadcast live with commentary on AUTOhebdo.fr.

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