Max Verstappen 'driving on ice' as Red Bull brings the wrong wing to exacerbate the struggle

Max Verstappen shared dull feedback at the end of the first day of running and felt that it was like driving on ice on Friday. The F1 Las Vegas GP is run in peculiar conditions where the temperatures are very low and the track is not grippy. Additionally, since the track is built around the desert, it gets dirty with sand very quickly, making it hard for the tire to get up to working temperature.

For Verstappen's Red Bull and others, this was a major problem as it meant the drivers couldn't get the best out of the car in cold and slippery conditions. What made things worse for Verstappen was that the team had come to Las Vegas with a rear wing leaking around 6 tenths on the long straights alone.

Talking to the media including Sportskeeda, the Dutch driver said that the entire experience felt like driving on ice and specifically pointed to the tires lacking grip.

"It was slippery, we struggled a lot with making the tyre work over one lap and especially on the long run," Max Verstappen said. "We started off a bit more competitive, but even then, we needed to fine-tune a few things, but the one-lap pace is quite far off, but of course, it is unique conditions, but it is the same for everyone.

We need to understand what we are doing wrong, but it feels massively tyre-related as the balance of the car is not even wrong. It is just that we have no grip, it is like driving on ice at the moment."

Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez echoed the driver's thoughts.

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Max Verstappen's teammate had the same thoughts on Red Bull's wing

Max Verstappen at the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas - First Practice Session Classification - Source: Getty

Max Verstappen's teammate Sergio Perez expanded on Red Bull bringing a rear wing with too much downforce. Talking to the media including Sportskeeda, the Mexican was optimistic, however, that the race pace was there, and with the track known for aiding overtakes, things could be turned around. He said:

"I think we have some work to do over one lap, I think the long run looked a little bit more promising, but we have got to focus overnight to really try to exploit everything because we are not where we want. We were mainly struggling with balance in the low-speed today, the rear is stepping out a lot, we came down a lot on downforce with the rear wing and it made it quite tricky.

Especially over a single lap we need to improve and hopefully we can do that, make another step and go in the right direction. We know that here, Sunday is the most important day, and you can overtake and so on, so it will be very critical to be able to have some good pace.”

Verstappen finished the day with a time below the top 15 as the Red Bull driver opted to work on longer runs but one thing that was clear early on was that the car was just not fast enough.