Red Bull reveal when their Macarena rear wing might return to action
Red Bull enjoyed an encouraging opening day at the Belgian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen topping the first practice session before ending Friday third fastest in FP2, while the team continued evaluating energy management strategies and worked to resolve the rear wing issue that forced a specification change earlier in the weekend.
Verstappen immediately looked at home around his favourite circuit, setting the fastest time in FP1 before remaining firmly in contention during the afternoon session.
The Dutchman finished third in FP2, less than half a second behind Mercedes pace-setter Andrea Kimi Antonelli, despite continuing to experience issues with the car's downshifts.
Team-mate Isack Hadjar also enjoyed a competitive day, finishing fourth in the opening session and fifth in FP2. Although the Frenchman faces a significant grid penalty that will complicate his weekend, his outright pace suggested Red Bull has brought a competitive package to Spa-Francorchamps.
Reflecting on Friday's running, Verstappen was pleased with the RB22's behaviour and the progress the team made throughout the day.
"The practice sessions were pretty decent for us today," Verstappen said. "The balance was good straight away and we were mainly working on fine-tuning the car, which hopefully unlocked a little more pace."
The four-time world champion believes the second session gave a more representative picture of the competitive order but remained satisfied with Red Bull's position.
"In FP2 we were perhaps seeing the real gap a bit more clearly, but we cannot be disappointed with our performance and are focusing on ourselves."
Verstappen also highlighted one of the key technical challenges facing teams this weekend, explaining that energy deployment around Spa remains a major area of development.
"It is quite a challenging track with the energy management, and during the session we were also looking at the downshifts as it took some time to get them working properly."
Despite those issues, he felt the overall balance was encouraging: "From a balance perspective, the car felt okay too and hopefully we can find some more pace before Qualifying. There are some areas we still need to improve, but all in all it was a good day."
Hadjar shared Verstappen's optimism, saying the car felt competitive from the very beginning of Friday's running.
"The pace in the car was good from my first lap out there today," the Frenchman said. "It feels like we've made a step forward in performance since Silverstone, which is positive."
While pleased with the overall package, Hadjar admitted Red Bull still has work to do after losing ground to the front-runners during FP2.
"I felt pretty good and, going into FP2, we tried to carry that on. In the second session, the gap to the leaders increased, so we'll look into where we can catch up. Overall, it was a solid day and it's good to be in the picture."
Technical Director Pierre Waché echoed the drivers' positive assessment but admitted there is still room for improvement before qualifying.
"Overall, we made a good start today," Waché said. "Spa is quite a tricky circuit in terms of energy recovery and deployment. In FP1 and FP2 we were looking at multiple strategies to deal with that."
"It looks quite open at the moment. The balance is not perfect, and we saw some degradation on the long run, so we have some work to do tonight to prepare for Qualifying tomorrow. However, it's a good starting point to improve upon."
Waché also provided an update on the rear wing issue that forced Red Bull to revert to an older specification after Friday morning. The team believes it has now identified the cause of the problem and hopes to return to its intended configuration soon.
"Regarding the change of the rear wing, we identified a mechanical problem and we have a fix in place. So we will try to bring back the original wing soon."
"However, our first priority is to make sure that the car is completely safe for the drivers as we don't want to take any risks."
