Verstappen slowed down by a slashed flat bottom

The Dutchman set the 3rd and 5th fastest times in Friday's free sessions but like many of his colleagues he suffered a few bruises while climbing the aggressive curbs of the Red Bull ring.

Verstappen was thus unable to improve his mark between FP1 and FP2 (1'05''072 against 1'05''125) where his team discovered a cut on the flat bottom of his RB14 and carried out a temporary repair .

« I don't think we had a perfect day because our flat bottom was damaged, declared the Batavian when he got out of the car. Something broke the inside of the part so I had to ride with a cut and slightly modified flat bottom in EL2.

This is not due to the yellow buzzers outside. I imagine this is the result of vibrations. It was an old flat bottom so we will put a new one tomorrow. We were a little limited today and the overall downforce of my car was affected.”

In terms of complaints, Verstappen added a balance which is not yet optimal while complaining again about a lack of engine power in a straight line.

« We never really found the right solution. I don't think the problems are with the tires. They are more at the level of the balance of the car. We still have work to do but if we do better in this area, the tires will follow. There is clearly room for improvement ».

His teammate Daniel Ricciardo, 5th and 4th this Friday, for his part revealed that he had tried two different types of adjustments during this opening day.

« We can find the happy medium with the two set-ups tried, said the Australian. There was little difference between the tire compounds as well so it will be interesting to see what the engineers in charge of strategy favor for Saturday ».