Red Bull left chasing RB22 balance after disrupted Austrian GP Friday

Red Bull recovers after troubled start in Austria

Red Bull’s Austrian Grand Prix weekend began with frustration at its home race, as technical problems compromised FP1 before the team recovered to show more competitive pace later in the day. Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar both finished inside the top seven in FP2, but neither driver ended Friday fully satisfied with the RB22’s balance.

That left the team short of clean early mileage at a weekend where understanding its updated package was a central priority. Even so, Verstappen salvaged fourth place in FP1 on soft tyres with a 1:08.077, underlining that the underlying pace had not disappeared despite the disruption.

Verstappen wants more stability before qualifying

Verstappen’s concern was not reliability by the afternoon, but balance. “In the practice sessions today it was a little bit tricky to find the right balance. We need to work on our front to rear grip and find the right compromise there,” he said.

He added that Red Bull was “not quite there at the moment compared to the others” and needed to find “more stability in general” before qualifying. Both Verstappen and Hadjar pointed to driveability issues, particularly under braking and traction through Turn 3, giving the engineers a clear overnight focus.

Hadjar sees progress but upgrades remain unfinished business

Hadjar’s day was even more fragmented. After his delayed FP1 start, he finished 12th with a 1:09.481, but improved sharply in FP2 to seventh on a 1:07.758 as the car became easier to drive.

The rookie was encouraged, but cautious. “We struggled to extract the most out of the car and our upgrades today as it felt off balance,” he said, adding that FP2 felt better but Red Bull was still “not where we want to be yet.”

Technical Director Pierre Waché framed Friday as a learning exercise after significant changes to the car. He said FP1 was limited by garage issues and reduced track time, while FP2 brought setup changes that produced mixed results.

Waché admitted it was too early to confirm whether the full package was delivering as expected, but said Red Bull was “quite happy” with its direction. The long runs were described as promising compared with Barcelona, though short-run pace remains the obvious target before qualifying.