‘A lot of things are not clicking’ – Red Bull’s Verstappen admits he’s lacking ‘confidence and commitment’ around Suzuka after tricky Friday

Max Verstappen revealed that Red Bull are trying “a lot of different things” to fix underlying issues with their RB21 at Suzuka.

Verstappen ended Friday eighth fastest and 0.556s off the pace of Oscar Piastri’s 1m 28.114s effort, in a Free Practice 2 session that was heavily disrupted by red flags, resulting in close to 40 minutes of track time being lost.

“Of course, it was quite chaotic out there for everyone with the red flags, so like everyone else, we couldn’t complete all of the things that we wanted to do,” said Verstappen.

“Today has been quite difficult for me because I’ve been trying a lot of different things with the car but it seems like a lot of things are not really clicking at the moment, and it’s quite difficult just to put the lap down.

SUZUKA, JAPAN - APRIL 04: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing — Verstappen reported «flexing» in his Red Bull

“You need a lot of confidence and commitment around here and at the moment, I don’t feel like I can use that, so we still have a bit of work to do.”

One specific complaint that Verstappen registered via team radio in FP1 was: “It’s super-weird. The car is flexing a lot.”

Asked if this particular issue had been resolved between sessions, he explained: “No, it’s an ongoing process. I just felt it a bit more here. There’s quite a bit of warp in some places and it’s something we’re looking into.”

SUZUKA, JAPAN - APRIL 04: Yuki Tsunoda of Japan and Oracle Red Bull Racing looks on in the garage — Tsunoda made his full-time Red Bull debut on Friday

The big news coming into the Suzuka weekend was that Red Bull had opted to swap Liam Lawson with local hero Yuki Tsunoda after just two races.

HIGHLIGHTS: Watch as Piastri goes fastest while Doohan crashes in disrupted FP2 in Japan

And while Tsunoda was able to match Verstappen’s pace in Free Practice 1, Verstappen was unwilling to elaborate anymore on the driver switch, telling the media: “I’ve discussed everything with the team, so the team knows what I think about everything, and I think that is enough, to be honest.”