Verstappen reflects on working with different race engineer in Austria as he assesses Red Bull’s Friday

Max Verstappen has explained what it was like to work with a different race engineer instead of Gianpiero Lambiase during the opening day of action at the Austrian Grand Prix, a day in which the Dutchman ended up in P3 on the timesheets.

As he hit the Red Bull Ring for his initial laps of Free Practice 1, Verstappen reported some issues with the RB21 over the radio – but this time, rather than speaking to ‘GP’, the World Champion was instead talking with Simon Rennie, who is standing in for Lambiase for the event while the Italian-British engineer steps aside for personal reasons.

Lambiase is set to return at the British Grand Prix but, in the interim, Verstappen has spoken positively about his first day of working directly with Rennie, who has previously acted as a race engineer for drivers including Mark Webber, Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon since joining Red Bull in 2013.

When pushed on how different it had felt without GP – with it being put to him that they have a special relationship, having worked together since Verstappen arrived at the team in 2016 – Verstappen answered: “Yeah, for sure, but that’s how it is now.

“I think so far today’s been really good with Simon, of course I’ve known Simon for a long time on the other side of the garage and working with him also in the simulator. He has a lot of experience, so it’s been actually very good today. He was straight on it and it was nice.”

In terms of how the day went out on track – with Verstappen ending FP1 in second place on the timesheets before setting the third fastest time in FP2 – the 27-year-old reflected: “I think overall it was quite straightforward.

“Didn’t have any big issues, but just lacking a bit of pace, a bit too much understeer in the car as well [in the] short run and long run, so that is something that we have to try and get rid of.”

On the other side of the garage, it looked to be a day of progress for Yuki Tsunoda, who went from being P17 on the board in first practice to P7 during Friday’s second practice hour.

“I think it went in the right direction from FP1 for FP2,” the Japanese driver conceded after jumping out of the car. “We’re still missing bits, or maybe more, but at least I’ve found a couple of positives so we’ll look for more.”

Since his promotion from Racing Bulls at Round 3 in Japan, Tsunoda has been in the process of adapting to the RB21.

Pushed on whether he feels that his confidence in the car has been building so far this weekend, the 25-year-old responded: “Yeah, definitely. This kind of track, attacking through high-speed, you need confidence.

“With that, I think confidence in FP2 felt much better – that’s all I need anyway. I’m still learning about this car and you need a good build-up, so so far I’m happy with this kind of approach – [I] just have to put it all together more tomorrow.”