Max Verstappen says Red Bull Racing will need to look at getting more heat into the Pirelli tyres before Qualifying at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit after struggling with them during Friday’s two free practice sessions.
The current World Championship leader – who can clinch the title this weekend if he outscores Lewis Hamilton by at least eighteen points – was second fastest behind his title rival in the first session in Saudi Arabia, while he ended only fourth in the evening’s running.
Verstappen says the team will need to unlock more pace from the car if they want to challenge for the front row in Saudi Arabia, but he is confident he can be at the sharp end of the grid if he can avoid any issues with traffic.
“Overall, it’s a really cool track, there are a lot of fast corners and it’s fun to drive,” said Verstappen. “We struggled to get heat into the tyres in FP2, which we will of course look into.
“Then we made a few changes from FP1 to FP2 which didn’t quite work but hopefully we can find the right balance come qualifying tomorrow. There are of course a lot of things to work on and improve so we’ll see what we can do to get more pace out of the car overnight.