Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar discuss how Red Bull will need to work on the car to get back in the fight with the frontrunners after struggling during FP1 and FP2 at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP.
While Verstappen managed to get in the top 10 in both practice sessions on Friday, Hadjar finished further behind. In FP1, the Dutchman classified P7, +0.791s from Russell, and Hadjar P13, +1.137s from the front. Later, as Piastri led in FP2, Verstappen barely ended up P10, +1.376s behind Piastri, and Hadjar P15, +1.626s.
Red Bull’s troubles are not surprising after a poor start to the 2026 F1 season. While their new driver did not finish the race in Australia, the four-time world champion, who has repeatedly critiqued the 2026 cars, did not finish in China.
Even though the team brought some upgrades to Suzuka, there were no major improvements during the sessions so far.
“We never get it together”: Verstappen on Red Bull’s performance during Friday practice at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP
After the sessions, Max Verstappen was asked about whether the energy management had been an issue during FP1 and FP2: “Yeah, I mean, it is what we saw from the simulations. Same for everyone, right? I don’t think that was our biggest problem today.”
Instead, he mentioned other struggles and was not overly optimistic about the team’s outlook for the weekend.
“We just struggled a lot more with the balance of the car grip. Not similar to China, but we’re still off. We’re still not really understanding why we’re that far off in sector 1, basically medium to high speed [we’re losing] a lot.
“Yeah, that’s something that we need to work on. I don’t think it’s an easy fix overnight. But yeah, a few things that are not going right at the moment.”
When asked about how the rotation of the car changed from one second to the other, Verstappen concluded: “I had two opposites today [oversteer and understeer].
“And the problem is that we never get it together, basically. You go from one extreme to another extreme. And that is just bleeding, of course, a lot of lap time.”
Finally, he explained the issue he faced at one point, when his pace fell to a snail’s one. “It’s like an FIA setting that if you drop too low in RPM, you have no power.
“It happens sometimes. It mainly happens when you’re driving slowly and you don’t try to let another car by who is on a fast lap. And you don’t downshift quick enough and your RPM then drops too low. You go into a safety mode or whatever and it takes like 10, 15, 20 seconds before then suddenly you have power again.
“So it’s just a glitch or whatever you call it.”
Hadjar is not happy with the car at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP so far
While Verstappen barely managed to get in the top 10 in both sessions, Isack Hadjar struggled a bit more. The French driver finished some positions behind his teammate on both occasions.
Afterwards, he reflected: “Today wasn’t our best day, we struggled with the balance and grip in both sessions and that made it hard to put together the laps we would’ve wanted.
“For FP2 we made a step up in the feel of the car but were a little further away in lap time. I’m not as comfortable in the car as I’d like to be, but I’m sure that ahead of tomorrow we can turn things around and get ourselves in better shape for Qualifying.”
Monaghan: “It’s not the standards we set ourselves”
Red Bull’s Head of Car Engineering Paul Monaghan agreed the car is not where they want it to be. As he discussed the Friday results at the 2026 F1 Japanese GP, his final assessment overall was that it was “a bit tricky here and there”.
“You just have to look at our relative position here. It’s not the standards we set ourselves or those that Max sets us.
“So, I think we’ve identified a few things that are wrong. Now it’s a case of can we confirm it, can we understand it well enough that we can influence it, affect it, cure it, whatever, for tomorrow? And let’s see how tomorrow goes.
“But yeah, today was, I’d describe it as challenging.”
Monaghan was also asked about the upgrade package Red Bull brought to the 2026 F1 Japanese GP, and whether it had the expected effect.
“Geometrically, it’s quite a big change,” he reflected.
“So, thank you everybody in Milton Keynes for getting here because that was a mighty effort.
“That, if our grasping of all of today’s fun is that’s behaving. But there are some other aspects of the car that are currently not very happy. And those are the ones we’ve got to try and correct for tomorrow. So, we will.”
To finish off, he was asked about Sector 1 and how challenging the amount of corners was.
“I don’t think there are any bits of this track that are not particularly challenging. It consists of corners and straights much like most of the tracks do. Sector 1 has more corners.
“So, yeah. Overall, the lap time is not very good.
“Sector 1 consists really of some chunks of a corner. And we’ve got to get that to improve. And I think the rest of it will come with it.
“So, if we can get the balance of the car better, the corners and the straights will just get better. So, that’s our challenge for this evening.”
