Max Verstappen looks back at 'mediocre day' with Red Bull as driver struggles for pace at F1 British GP

Max Verstappen cut a disappointed figure after the first day of running in the F1 British GP as the Dutch driver struggled with his car in both FP1 and FP2. The race in Silverstone should ideally be a good one for Red Bull, as the fast speed sections should work for the car.

Looking at the manner in which the car behaved in the free practice, that was certainly not the case. The car was more than a handful at different times in the day, with the driver struggling with understeer in the slow-speed sections. When it came to pushing for a fast lap, Verstappen was not quite comfortable, as he lost a lot of time in the second sector.

At the end of the day, Verstappen was around half a second off Lando Norris' benchmark. The driver's long run did appear to be much better, but the first impressions are not as positive.

Max Verstappen also gave a more or less predictable verdict of the day, as he felt that overall, Red Bull had a mediocre day. In a press release on his personal website, he said:

"For me personally, it was quite a bad day. The balance was very bad, and it was difficult from corner to corner. The wind has a big impact, but that’s not an excuse, because everybody has to deal with it."

He added:

"Our car seems quite sensitive to it. In general a mediocre day, difficult. We’re lacking performance, and we’re looking at a few things to try and improve that."

Max Verstappen struggling with understeer: Christian Horner

Talking to Sky Sports at the end of the day, Red Bull's Christian Horner revealed that Max Verstappen was struggling with a bit of understeer in the car. Horner did find encouragement in the fact that the long runs were quite competitive for Verstappen, as he said:

"We've got a bit of understeer in the car, which we just need to sort out. So it's a bit of a balancing act. I think if we can sort that out... We're giving away... 90 per cent of our lap time is in Turns six and seven (Brooklands and Luffield, ed.). So those are the low-speed corners and when we turn back into the wind."

He added:

"The rest of the lap looks pretty good. And if you look at the long run times, they actually look pretty good. So I think we have something we can work with. We just need to make sure we set it up the right way from one day to the next."

Max Verstappen has won twice at Silverstone, as the driver was the victor here in 2020 and 2023. With so much focus on his future, it would be interesting to see how he approaches the rest of the weekend.