Verstappen concedes ‘still a bit of work to do’ for Red Bull to be ‘really competitive’ at Monza

Max Verstappen believes that Red Bull still have work to do to be “really competitive” during the rest of the Italian Grand Prix weekend after a close first day of running at Monza, with the Dutchman experiencing mixed fortunes across Friday’s practice sessions.

After topping the timesheets in FP1, Verstappen ended FP2 in 14th place having not completed a run on the soft tyre. Despite this, the Dutchman feels that the team gained a good insight into possible directions to take with the RB20 going forward.

FP2: Hamilton leads Norris and Sainz during close second practice at Monza while Magnussen brings out red flags

“I just tried quite a few things today, and probably FP2 was initially not that great, but then it seemed like the long run was a little bit more competitive,” Verstappen explained after the session.

“It seems quite aggressive on tyres at the moment, they are opening up so quite interesting how that will evolve for the race as well. I think we have quite a few good directions to take with the car, just need to tidy it up a bit.

“I think it will be quite close, as you can see, between a lot of cars, and hopefully we can be in that mix.”

In terms of whether he was chasing a few different paths with testing various things, Verstappen added: “Just trying different set-up directions, because that’s at the end of the day what practice is for. Also things that we might want to learn a bit more about the car and that’s why we’re doing it.”

Looking ahead to the remainder of the weekend – where temperatures are set to stay high – Verstappen reflected on what Red Bull need to do in order to be in the close fight at the front, with the leading five cars all within a tenth and a half of each other in FP2.

FP1: Verstappen heads Leclerc during first practice at Monza as Antonelli crashes on debut

“Still a bit of work to do to be really competitive,” the reigning world champion commented. “But like I said, FP1 actually felt quite decent, FP2 maybe not as much in the beginning but then it felt a bit better in the long run, so now we just need to bring it all together to be in the mix for tomorrow.”

On the other side of the garage, Sergio Perez ran an out-of-sync programme in second practice after his car underwent a precautionary gearbox change between the sessions, meaning that his time on track was delayed. He ended the hour in P15 on the timesheets.

“We are a bit [on] the back foot,” Perez remarked later on. “We still had a lot of issues [in FP2] because everything was quickly done. We had a few mechanical issues, so I think we just have to wait and see what actually the car is doing to get on top of.

“The positive thing is probably the long run, it looked a little bit more promising. But we are just nowhere with set-up, it’s changing corner to corner. I think that we had a couple of issues during the session.”

Despite this, Perez is hopeful that the problems can be addressed during the third and final practice hour on Saturday, adding: “Yeah, I think given that it was just a mechanical issue, I think it’s quite easy to sort it out, but it won’t be as easy as we hoped for.”

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There have been some well documented ups and downs for Perez during the season so far and, pushed on whether he was still feeling good in the RB20 from a confidence perspective, the Mexican voiced his hopes that he and the team can continue to make progress during the rest of the weekend.

“The car, the issues are still there,” he answered. “We’re fighting them, we’re trying to make the most out of it. Hopefully tomorrow we are able to take a good step – especially over one lap – and be able to fight in the race.”