The Dutchman, seventh in sprint qualifying, revealed that the circuit's bumps prevented him from being consistent, "I couldn't keep my foot on the throttle properly," he explained, and Red Bull did not progress between practice and SQ.
Max Verstappen lived a Friday to forget in Canada, the Red Bull driver who had shown signs of improvement in Miami came up against an unmanageable RB22 at the Gilles Villeneuve circuit and his result was a seventh place in sprint qualifying, far from the Mercedes who occupied the front row and also behind the McLarens and Ferraris.
"My feeling in the car was simply not good, I was struggling a lot with the car's behavior," said the four time world champion to Sky Sports, who did not hide his frustration.
The main problem, according to him, was the RB22's inability to absorb the characteristic bumps of the Canadian track: "Over all the bumps I couldn't keep my foot on the throttle properly, my feet were even slipping off the pedals, that made it very difficult to be consistent, we have to investigate it," revealed the Dutchman, who was also critical of the team's evolution between the only free practice session and sprint qualifying. Asked if Red Bull had taken a step forward, Verstappen was blunt: "No, not really, that wasn't great."
The Dutchman was not surprised by the performance of his rivals when asked if he was disappointed that Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari seemed to find more speed. The reality is that the RB22 still cannot find the right balance on a circuit that demands a very specific setup.
The parc fermé regulations limit Red Bull's options ahead of Saturday's sprint race, Verstappen is tied to the configuration chosen before qualifying, but the team will be able to work on the data collected to try to solve the problems ahead of qualifying for Sunday's Grand Prix.
"I hope we can have it better resolved for qualifying," stated Verstappen, who did not want to venture whether they can come back, "I don't know, we'll see," he concluded.
The Dutchman's seventh place on the sprint grid contrasts with the ninth place of Isack Hadjar, his young teammate at Racing Bulls (Red Bull's satellite team), the difference in pace between the two cars is evident and Verstappen hopes that the engineers in Milton Keynes find a quick solution.
The sprint race will take place on Saturday at 13:00 local time (18:00 GMT), it will be 19 laps of the Canadian track and for Verstappen it will be an opportunity to score points but above all to gather information ahead of Sunday's qualifying, the goal is to arrive at the Grand Prix with a car that at least allows him to keep his feet on the pedals.
