Gianpiero Lambiase, the regular race engineer for Max Verstappen, acknowledges that there is still a challenge ahead for Red Bull after Friday’s practice in Mexico City. According to the British engineer, while both Red Bull cars are capable of setting competitive lap times at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, tyre degradation and ‘the pace when the tanks are full’ are still causes for concern.
Max Verstappen, like eight of his Formula 1 colleagues, was on the pit wall during the first free practice in Mexico, while Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad was allowed to clock up miles in his RB21. The British-Swedish driver thus took charge of a Formula 1 session for the second time. For Verstappen’s regular race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, this also meant a different voice in his headphones.
“Arvid did an excellent job in the car during the first free practice,” the engineer praises the rookie on Verstappen.com. “We had a few new parts on the car and he did an excellent job gathering the necessary data and keeping the car intact.” Lindblad recorded the sixth time, making him faster than regular Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda.
Work in Progress
In the second session, Max Verstappen got back behind the wheel, primarily focusing on long runs. “I think both cars can set a fairly competitive lap time over one round, as you saw in VT2, especially with Max,” Lambiase concludes after Friday. The conditions were more challenging for the world champion than for Lindblad. “In the afternoon, a track temperature of nearly fifty degrees made it very difficult for us, in terms of the engine, brake cooling, and tires. The challenge we are currently working on is finding that combination of the internal tire temperature and the surface temperature.”
The Brit knows what the Austrian team still needs to do. “So, it’s the pace when the tanks are full that we really need to focus all our attention on. We are not really satisfied with the degradation of our tires and with the control of the tire temperature. We still need to work on that.”
