Max Verstappen had an eventful session during free practice for the Australian Grand Prix, damaging his Red Bull after a rare mistake. However, the world champion remains clear-headed about his team’s actual level.
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The second free practice session of the Australian Grand Prix was not easy for Max Verstappen. While the teams continued their work programs on the Albert Park street circuit, the Red Bull driver made an unusual mistake that seriously damaged his car.
In the second half of FP2, the Dutchman was surprised by sudden oversteer approaching Turn 10. His car’s rear stepped out, sending him straight into the gravel trap at high speed. Fortunately for him, Verstappen managed to avoid the circuit walls, unlike Oliver Bearman who had crashed heavily at that spot during the 2025 edition.
The off-track excursion was not without consequences, however. Bouncing through the gravel, the RB22 suffered significant damage to the floor, with several elements detaching under the impact.
A shortened session but an encouraging time
Despite the damage to his car, Max Verstappen still managed to return to the pits before setting the sixth fastest time of the session. A decent result given the circumstances, even if the world champion was only able to complete 13 laps in total during this second session.
The start of the day had been smoother for Red Bull, however. During FP1, Verstappen finished third after completing a solid number of laps, allowing the team to collect plenty of data on its new car.
But FP2 proved more complicated, notably due to several difficulties encountered in the car’s setup.
“In FP1, we managed to complete quite a few laps, but in FP2 we encountered some problems” explained Verstappen after the session.
Red Bull still in adjustment phase
According to Verstappen, Red Bull is still actively working to find the ideal settings to fully exploit the potential of the RB22 on the Melbourne circuit.
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The Dutchman notably mentioned a lack of grip that complicated the team’s work during this first day of testing. This grip deficit could partly explain the mistake that sent him into the gravel trap.
“We are still trying to find the right setup for the car and we are struggling a bit with grip, he admitted. And then there was that excursion into the gravel.”
Verstappen remains clear-headed about the team’s actual level
Despite this incident and an overall imperfect day, Max Verstappen does not seem particularly worried. The four-time world champion believes that the performance shown by Red Bull generally corresponds to what he expected before this first weekend of the season.
Even though the Austrian team did not have a completely clean day on track, the Dutchman considers that the pace observed remains consistent with the team’s expectations.
“We didn’t have a totally clean day, but in terms of pace we are where I expected to be” he explained.
The Red Bull driver nevertheless insists that a lot of work remains to be done before qualifying.
“There are still many things to analyze. We are going to look at what worked and what we can improve overnight. For now, it’s simply the reality of our situation.”
A pragmatic observation that well reflects the uncertainty surrounding this start of the 2026 F1 season, marked by the arrival of new technical regulations and a hierarchy that is still very difficult to establish.
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