Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar have given their verdicts on how they think Red Bull will perform this weekend in the British Grand Prix after a recent upturn in form.
Red Bull brought a substantial upgrade package to their home race in Austria last weekend, with the improved RB22 allowing Verstappen to challenge for victory on Sunday and split Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.
With Silverstone this weekend offering a different challenge, due to its high speed nature and flowing corners, Verstappen was unsure whether to expect the same performance – while upgrades introduced by rival teams could be a crucial factor.
“We have made good progress but it’s like that the whole season so far. One team bringing quite a big upgrade, they jump ahead, then another team comes they go forward again,” said Verstappen on Thursday’s media day.
“Just need to be aware that can happen again with other teams. We just keep focusing on our own package, try to optimise that further and see if we can have more results like that [Austria].”
Although Red Bull’s best result of the season came on a track featuring long straights, Silverstone’s long, flat-out sections with only minimal braking zones mean that teams and drivers will be unable to harvest energy as easily.
Verstappen believes that Red Bull’s package is currently lacking in all areas, especially compared with Mercedes, and that it needs to improve all aspects to close the gap.
“You need a strong engine but you also need good battery power. At the end of the day it’s two different things,” said Verstappen.
“I think our car is not really one area where we are lacking, it’s just sometimes you lack in the low speed, the high speed.
“Probably sometimes a bit of a balance thing as well with setup, but again here everything will feel so different because of a lack of energy that you can use.”
With the British Grand Prix being a Sprint weekend, teams and drivers will be limited to only one hour of Free Practice ahead of Sprint Qualifying on Friday afternoon.
Hadjar believes it could pose teams problems in order to find the perfect set-up and performance.
“It’s going to be challenging with deployment tactics on a track like this,” he said.
“Considering we only have one session to adapt, its going to be… we need to be ready for it sometimes to be frustrating and to have back-up plans, let’s say, to bounce back.
“I’m confident we have the package to fight, [it] should be a bit cooler than the Red Bull Ring and that should help our car.”
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