What's behind Red Bull's "hit-and-miss" issues during first test of crucial F1 upgrade?

Red Bull did not yet get a clear picture during Friday practice in Spielberg of what Max Verstappen described as a “crucial” upgrade package for the RB22.

The Dutchman finished fourth in both sessions at the Red Bull Ring, eventually ending up more than half a second behind pace-setter Kimi Antonelli.

Over the team radio, Verstappen mainly complained about an issue in Turn 3, where the Red Bull power unit was strangely losing revs at the apex, forcing the drivers to wait for the engine to pick up again.

The four-time world champion described it afterwards as “hit-and-miss”, with team-mate Hadjar offering a similar assessment.

“It's like the rears are grabbing, locking up and you lose all the support. It's not a linear grip, it's not nice. You're constantly guessing the grip. And then once you go back on throttle, the engine has to catch up and it creates wheelspin on the exit,” Verstappen said.

“It's really, really poor. Just in this corner, I don't know how much we're losing, but it really feels bad.”

Technical director Pierre Wache acknowledged that an engine-related issue lies at the root of the problem, something Red Bull needs to address before qualifying: “We clearly have an issue there on how we manage the engine and how the car is operating. That is something that we have to fix or try to get away from it.”

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad revealed that the sister team has been struggling with similar issues for a longer period of time, but that this is the first time it has affected the senior team.

Can Red Bull solve the balance issues overnight?

Aside from that engine-related issue, the overall balance was also not where both Red Bull drivers wanted it to be. According to Wache, however, there is a logical explanation for that.

Because Red Bull has introduced a major upgrade at once, the characteristics of the car have changed, meaning not everything learned during previous race weekends remains valid.

“It’s every time the same problem. When you change a lot on the car, the characteristics are changing a little bit, and the balance is changing,” Wache explained. ”Then you have to see how the sensitivity of each set-up element is playing a role in the request from the drivers and what is needed for them.

”That is clearly something that we have to learn from FP2 and try to improve for FP3 and qualifying.”

According to Hadjar, that is precisely why Red Bull cannot yet judge what the extensive package – including a revised floor, sidepods and weight reduction – is actually worth.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Peter Fox / Getty Images

“So far, it just seems like it's hard to extract the most of it because we're completely off balance and we're struggling a lot. So there's a lot of digging to do tonight,” the French driver said.

Although the true extent of the progress remains unclear, Wache is convinced that the upgrade represents a step forward: “What we see is clearly a better package than what we had previously in terms of weight and in terms of downforce. But to see exactly the downforce levels that we can achieve, we will see more during the night and tomorrow morning.”

Team principal Laurent Mekies has said that he hopes the upgrades will reduce Red Bull’s deficit from four to five tenths to around two to three tenths.

An added benefit, according to Hadjar, is that the package should improve driveability, provided a better balance can be found than was the case on Friday: “It felt way better in FP2, so that's good news, but it's not where we want to be. At least it's a lot easier to drive, so the performance should come tomorrow a bit easier than usual. So that's good, but the car is definitely not where we want it in terms of set-up.”