Red Bull admits balance crisis at Monza after Verstappen's practice complaints

Red Bull arrived at Monza hoping the Temple of Speed’s high-speed layout would offer relief after a difficult Dutch Grand Prix, but Friday practice at the Italian Grand Prix delivered fresh problems. Both RB22s ended the day behind a Racing Bulls driven by Arvid Lindblad and a Haas piloted by Oliver Bearman, with Max Verstappen vocal on the radio about a car that felt fundamentally wrong.

Technical director Pierre Wache did not shy away from the scale of the challenge. “I think that clearly we have a balance issue on the car, that is the main thing,” he said. “It’s a little bit like Zandvoort, to be honest, and we try to understand what the issue is. We try to fix it in a different way by set-up and car components.”

Verstappen’s complaints during the second session covered a range of problems: insufficient rear downforce, brake issues, and pronounced bouncing that followed set-up changes made during the day. The four-time world champion had not driven in first practice, with Ayumu Iwasa taking his seat as part of the mandatory rookie running, and Wache acknowledged that the reduced running time with Verstappen compounded the team’s difficulties.

“It doesn’t help when Max is not driving during FP1 and jumps in the car for FP2,” Wache said. “We have less time to react, but now we have to react for FP3.”

When pressed on whether the balance problems were connected to the minor upgrades Red Bull listed in the FIA technical document — changes to the bib and front wing — Wache suggested the root cause runs deeper. “We will evaluate some components and afterwards we have some choices to make between different components [that we have] since a few races,” he said.

A secondary issue also surfaced on Friday. Iwasa reported an unexpected problem with energy management during his preparation lap ahead of a timed run, an area Verstappen had already flagged on media day as one where Red Bull is not the benchmark at power-sensitive circuits like Monza. Iwasa described it as a useful discovery: “We found something that we should not find with our preparation in the lap before the push lap. But that is good, it is a good learning for the rest of the weekend as a team.”

With qualifying approaching, Red Bull faces a tight window to resolve both the balance and energy management concerns before competitive running begins.