{"id":329694,"date":"2025-12-05T15:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329694\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T15:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:50:11","slug":"red-bull-must-be-faster-after-norris-dominates-f1-abu-dhabi-gp-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329694\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Bull must be “faster” after Norris dominates F1 Abu Dhabi GP practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> is currently feeling pessimistic about his Abu Dhabi Grand Prix chances as Red Bull lacks pace to McLaren<\/a> at the 2025 Formula 1 title showdown.<\/p>\n

The four-time world champion finished runner-up to McLaren championship leader Lando Norris<\/a> in both FP1 (+0.008s) and FP2 (+0.363s) on Friday at Yas Marina Circuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes during the season finale where Norris simply needs a podium finish to claim a maiden title, as he is 12 points ahead of Verstappen and 16 above team-mate Oscar Piastri<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cI was fairly happy with the car, we just need to be probably a little bit faster,\u201d said Verstappen, who has won the last four championships for Red Bull.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill not quick enough, but I think overall we’ve been, for us, in a decent window around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verstappen added that \u201cthere\u2019s a constant fight\u201d with the ride of his car and that \u201cboth single lap and long run needs to be better\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Clive Mason \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cSeems like it’s a decent gap that we need to close,\u201d the Dutchman added. \u201cBut from our side, we’ll just try to put the best car forward and yeah, let’s see how much we can find overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The struggles were worse in the sister RB21, as it finished 15th in FP1 with Arvid Lindblad behind the wheel before Yuki Tsunoda<\/a>, in his final weekend for Red Bull, returned for second practice to come 17th.<\/p>\n

So Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko agreed with Verstappen, saying neither the long run or one-lap pace was \u201csatisfactory\u201d before adding \u201cwe\u2019re losing more time in sector three\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car has a clear tendency to understeer, something Max really doesn\u2019t like,\u201d said Marko. \u201cOn the long run we were stronger in the first practice as well – this time, we\u2019re clearly\u2026 well, not clearly, but we\u2019re behind Lando.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marko did say Verstappen is ahead of Piastri, who skipped FP1 before finishing 11th in second practice, but that doesn\u2019t really help his title chances given Norris is the man to beat.<\/p>\n

The reigning champion needs help from elsewhere too, but Marko isn\u2019t confident of Mercedes<\/a> or Ferrari<\/a> being \u201cquick enough\u201d to beat Norris considering neither were a threat in Friday practice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Thompson \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

That means there likely needs to be an operational or strategic failure from Norris\u2019 side to hand Verstappen the championship, but Marko reckons \u201cwe can’t rely three times on mistakes\u201d.<\/p>\n

It comes after Verstappen won last weekend\u2019s Qatar GP thanks to an error from McLaren, who failed to pit under a safety car losing a likely 1-3 finish<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The blunder added to many other mistakes in the second half of the year, such as Piastri\u2019s Baku crash<\/a> or the double Vegas disqualification for excessive plank wear<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That, plus Red Bull upgrades for round 16 at Monza, has helped Verstappen overturn a deficit that previously stood at 104 points having won five of the last eight grands prix.<\/p>\n

So, whatever happens this weekend, Marko is still buoyed by the effort Red Bull has shown to salvage something from this season after McLaren dominated the opening 15 weekends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve made an excellent comeback,\u201d Marko told Sky Sports Germany. \u201cWe\u2019ve expanded our working window, and when the timing is right, Max has been able to strike.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there are two McLarens and only one car that can run at the front. Overall, though, this chase has motivated the entire team immensely. I think it was also unexpected for the whole Formula 1 world. That makes it even more exciting now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen is currently feeling pessimistic about his Abu Dhabi Grand Prix chances as Red Bull lacks pace…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[182715,64,63,817,813,816,825,946,85,184563,169580],"class_list":["post-329694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-abu-dhabi-gp","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-verstappen-red-bull-must-be-faster-after-norris-dominates-f1-abu-dhabi-gp-practice","tag-yas-marina-circuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}