Max Verstappen says Red Bull has work to do and needs to solve some balance and🧔 grip issues that held its performance back during Friday practice for Formula 1’s Italian Grand Prix.

Verstappen ended the d🐭ay with the fifth-fastest time and was over a second adrift from the dominant Mercedes duo at Monza.

The Dutchman was struggl♐ing with balance and grip in his RB16⛎ throughout the day and suffered an off during first practice when he spun off at Ascari.

“It was not a good day,” Verstappen admitted. “Struggling with balance and grip in general. Still quite a bit of work to do.

“First we just have to solve our grip issues, and then normally if we have quite a balanced caꦉr, then the tyre wear should be OK.”

Red Bull teammate Alex 💮Albon enjoyed a better day, setting the third-quickest time in FP1 before he saw his best la🅰p deleted for a track limits infringement in the afternoon.

“It was feeling OK in the morning and I s🍒till feel like the afternoon wasn’t too🥃 bad, it just needs a bit of a touch-up,” Albon explained.

“It’s just ཧvery close out there, as we expected. It will be tricky to get, a tenthꦜ is going to be four positions I reckon.

“We’ve got to do some homework and get the car just a little bit better in the comparison between the low speed and high speed.”
Asked whether hಌe feels Red Bull is losing more in the corners or the straights, Albon replied: “I think it’s a bit of both, but actually, we’ve got some potential in the corners.

“It’s just more fine-tuning balance. I think we know what we want, j🌌ust need to get🐟 it.”