Christian Horner, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, 2021

Verstappen says Red Bull are “lacking a bit of pace” in Abu Dhabi

2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Max Verstappen admitted Red Bull have lap time to find after ending Saturday’s running six-tenths of a second slower than the quickest Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton set the pace around the remodelled Yas Marina circuit, lowering the best of the day to a 1’23.691 in second practice.

Verstappen said Red Bull are “still learning and understanding a few things” following the first day of practice in Abu Dhabi.

“Clearly the short run didn’t go to plan, lacking a bit of pace,” he said. “But I think the long runs were a bit more competitive so that’s also important.”

The two championship-contending teams were unexpectedly split by the Alpine of Esteban Ocon on Friday. However, Hamilton expects the gaps between them to close up over the rest of the weekend.

“It’s still a bit unknown in terms of pace but I’m sure it’s going to be super-close like it has been in the previous races,” said the Mercedes driver.

He said his car “doesn’t feel too bad” so far. “It started off good then got a bit worse in P1, started off better in the second session with some changes we made.

“But now we’re just going to crank through the data and try and figure out how we can improve. The target is always moving.”

Hamilton needs to out-score Verstappen by one point or more this weekend to clinch the championship. He said he was encouraged by the progress Mercedes was made on the first day of the event.

“I feel great in my body and I think we made some positive steps set-up-wise,” he said. “We’ll try and perfect it tonight and come back hard tomorrow.”

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2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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31 comments on “Verstappen says Red Bull are “lacking a bit of pace” in Abu Dhabi”

  1. Glad Red Bull has realizes they’re not going to win either championship l!

    1. I think they are sandbagging.

      We saw how close they came to qualifying pole in the last race. I think Redbull’s tactic is to get Mercedes to underestimate them, and thus to under-perform believing they have this, only for Redbull to do them through gamesmanship.

      Also it seems both teams have very different approach to the airpin, which could be telling if Redbull switches to try the other approach into that part of the track.

      1. I don’t think Red Bull are as fast. The difference is Max. But he already looked like he was pushing it more than the Mercedes cars. I will be surprised if Hamilton doesn’t have pole. And there is a good chance he will have Bottas next to him.

  2. They know what they are doing. Spin the underdog story and focus on incredible race pace. There’s zero chance RedBull have dropped below alpine on single lap pace in the space of a few days.

    1. Indeed. It’s all mind games until Qualifying

      1. But they will complain about Mercedes influence, max bias, unfair stg stg stg that Mercedes cheated if they loose both the manufacturer and driver champs. And I wouldn’t rule out post race protests from redbull if Mercedes pulls a decent gap in the race.

        1. oh, get over it already. Both teams and principals are similar in behaviour this year.

          1. Sikhumbuzo Khumalo
            10th December 2021, 19:03

            Toto Wolff has always been professional and all his utterances in media have not been critical or degrading to anyone.

          2. Toto goes to FIA about his complaints, redbull moans on the media days/weeks/months and directly use “cheating” in their media wars… Cheat engine, cheat suspension, cheat steering, cheat wings, cheat moves… They are unbearable for constantly moaning… They have used their free drs wing half season literally and said they passed the test, they couldn’t show demonstrably they cheated, while they re 100% sure yet data prove otherwise. Very funny guys…

  3. Saturday running on friday?

    1. They’re that far ahead of the rest of the pack now.

      1. Comment of the season!

    2. This engine was used for the last time so Mercedes turned it up to the max.
      Tomorrow we will see the real setting, but that engine too only has to survive one day..

  4. Go Lewis go

    1. Differences were subtle between fp1-2-3-q1

      Here seems like a little more dramatic however, we ll find out once the tracks rubbers in and temps changes for the night we ll find out true difference. However there is no shortage of sands and bags in Abu Dhabi, so we can’t rule out anything possible. Only thing possible is max’s engine being too wore down, and his gearbox got some beating last week. Also the rear wing will more likely be very slim for quali/race but their slim wings tend to be problematic (given if they haven’t fixed it yet)

  5. Same thing happened in Austin… it’s FP means very little

    1. Differences were subtle between fp1-2-3-q1

      Here seems like a little more dramatic however, we ll find out once the tracks rubbers in and temps changes for the night we ll find out true difference. However there is no shortage of sands and bags in Abu Dhabi, so we can’t rule out anything possible. Only thing possible is max’s engine being too wore down, and his gearbox got some beating last week. Also the rear wing will more likely be very slim for quali/race but their slim wings tend to be problematic (given if they haven’t fixed it yet)

      Dunno how my above reply went to wrong message :)

  6. Dave (@davewillisporter)
    10th December 2021, 15:39

    Neither team turned the PUs up and Redbull pulled that Jeddah lap out after being behind all weekend so I would expect quali to be very close again.

    1. @davewillisporter Verstappen was fastest in Jeddah FP3 and even Perez was third though.

    2. Hi

      In Jeddah, I think RBR gambled by going with a setup aggressively prioritized for 1-lap pace, presumably hoping that once they had pole, the difficulty in passing (couple with aggressive blocking by Max) would let them stay ahead in the race.

      I think that’s why Max had that dramatic pace advantage on Saturday, but was slower than Lewis on Friday and Sunday.

      1. And beefed up the braking ;-)

  7. Btw those helmet cams were awesome. Just a reminder that we civilians don’t really know what it means to drive these cars at speed.

    1. Yup, pure insanity. I can’t even think that fast.

  8. I thought that the car didn’t make a difference and it was all down to the driver…

  9. Yeah, sure thing Red Bull. Not fooling anyone.

  10. Predicting another Alpine win, Lewis and Max wont finish the race…. With Max ending up as an illegitimate champion.

    Haha.

    Either way, the comments post race are going to be gold.

    1. Mark in Florida
      11th December 2021, 6:48

      (@jaymenon10) Yes the comment section will be insane after the race. I’m tired of Mercs serial winning and RedBulls serial complaining. They are both (Horner and Toto) terrible and have drug the sport to new lows. The open acrimony is getting out of hand and the fans are right there with them. I personally hope that the race is clean and fair without dirty tactics from either side. I’m hoping that Ferrari can come up with a front runner for next year myself. Oh well! Can’t wait for Indy car to start.

  11. Nell (@imabouttogoham)
    11th December 2021, 8:04

    I feel like both teams are more than happy to give the other pole, provided they’re on P2. There are 3 slipstreaming opportunities, P1 on Saturday may not mean much by the start of lap 2 of 58.

    However if Red Bull or Mercedes can lock out the front row, that’s a different story altogether.

    1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      11th December 2021, 9:10

      The starts from Max have not been as stellar as earlier in the season. Saudi was a case in point where on the same tyre he was beaten off the line twice.

      When on different rubber he was soundly beaten off the line by Valtteri in Brazil sprint.

  12. Vera Slapem! Leave the sandbagging to the real experts!
    Well done Karen Spice for at last, sportingly shaking hands with Toto!

  13. The fact that Max is still leading the championship with a slower car is nothing short of genius. Win or lose on Sunday he’s proven to be driver of the year and ready to take the current GOAT title from Alonso! Wow

Comments are closed.