Red Bull placed both cars in the top 10 in Friday practices for the 2026 F1 Spanish GP. Max Verstappen clocked the fifth best time in FP1 and sixth best in FP2. Deputising again for Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson was tenth in both sessions.
Technical director Pierre Waché had a laundry list of items for the team to work on heading into Saturday.
“There’s a lot of work to do on car setup for sure, mechanical grip. The ride is more challenging than what we thought, it’s not as smooth. And after, on energy deployment, it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do there also. But yeah, and the tyre grain, more than also maybe as expected.”
Red Bull “explore some routes” Friday into F1 Spanish GP qualifying
“But I think in FP2 we were a little bit better than FP1, and I think we have to continue in this route. I think we did quite a lot of changes between P1 and P2 already. And I think we will continue to explore some routes and I think we will do more for FP3.”
Verstappen also identified a minor steering issue during practice. “It’s all drivable. but it was not feeling the same. But they will fix it.”
Beyond that, he has his own work cut out for him.
“I just need to work a little bit on balance and trying to just get a bit more out of it over one lap. And then see how the tyres hold up in the long run. But, I mean, I guess everyone is a bit in the same boat.”
New circuit bringing new challenges at Madring
That boat being a brand new circuit to contend with, a unique and challenging temporary circuit in the Madring. Waché addressed the challenges from the technical side:
“It’s quite a lot of types of corner, interesting on an engineering point of view. After, it will be very difficult to overtake, it looks like.”
When asked what compromises in set-up they may have to make, Waché said: “I think compromising between corner and deployment.
“Some corners are full throttle and putting some sliding on the tyre, that’s something we have to see. But yeah, it’s challenging.”
Verstappen: “I think they’ve done a really good job, but…”
As for Verstappen, he made clear his early thoughts on the track are tempered by his personal disdain for temporary circuits.
“I’m not a fan of street circuits, so that will never, never change. I will always prefer to drive on a track like Spa. I mean, what they have done, in like the way they have built everything up, I think they’ve done a really good job. But I’m not a fan of street circuits.”
