Max Verstappen was highly critical of the RB22 performance during Qualifying at the F1 British GP, which saw him secure seventh place for the Grand Prix on Sunday.
Verstappen’s Red Bull has struggled significantly with straight-line pace during the race weekend, with Silverstone’s layout exposing the complexities of F1’s new cars. It’s a track not suited to energy harvesting and power deployment, which has become a crucial element of performance this season.
This means drivers have been forced to slow down through what would usually be high-speed corners to garner energy for their batteries to use later on the circuit.
Verstappen: Red Bull’s lack of power at F1 British GP is “painful”
With a strict focus on energy management, drivers are now having to think more than ever about preserving their power, rather than driving flat out wherever possible. Verstappen described the feeling of driving like this at a track as dynamic as Silverstone as unnatural.
“It’s just not going forward,” he said. “It’s just not pulling the same as it was. On a track like this, where that is key, you want as much power as you can. It’s extra painful.
“I’ve tried a lot of different things through qualifying, but it was just always the same. So, there is a clear problem, and that’s something that also worries me for tomorrow, because there is actually no point to race like this.”
This comes after the FIA deemed Red Bull’s engine to be the best on the grid as part of its Additional Development and Upgrade Opportunities (ADUO) system. The Red Bull engine was judged ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari, which was met with surprise from the Austrian team. Indeed, it has been reported that Red Bull will consult with the FIA this weekend over the results of the ADUO testing.
Verstappen certainly believes other teams are faster at Silverstone, where energy management has left him getting “no enjoyment” out of racing.
“I guess the faster you are, the better it is, right?” he said. “But for me, no enjoyment, unfortunately. I mean, it’s still a great track. I know how it felt like before.
“It’s a little bit different, let’s say like that.
“The problem is that you slow down so much before the corners. It makes it a lot less interesting.”
Asked what is keeping him motivated to continue to push through weekends despite struggles with the car, Verstappen joked: “Life. Yeah, it’s actually that. Life. Breathing!”
Verstappen on F1 British GP Sprint race struggles: “We were getting destroyed”
Silverstone’s less-than-ideal layout reared its head during the Sprint race earlier on Saturday, where haphazard energy management saw lots of back-and-forth overtaking in what has been described as ‘yo-yo racing’.
Verstappen became caught in between such overtaking in a battle with George Russell and Charles Leclerc, who easily passed him down the straight. When asked how it felt to be in the middle of this battle, Verstappen said: “It just depends how much you understand pure racing. It’s how you define it, I guess.
“In the Sprint race we were getting destroyed in the very high speed [corners].
“I had George behind me who was catching me in dirty air in the high speed, so that says quite a lot. But even in the low speed [corners], I’m just not happy with how the car has been handling the whole weekend. So it’s a clear disconnect.”
