Red Bull drivers handed crucial promise after 'fundamental issues' revealed

Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar have been handed a crucial promise by Laurent Mekies that Red Bull will get on top of its "fundamental issues".

Despite introducing an upgrade package, Red Bull suffered another troublesome day to kick-start the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.

Verstappen ended the opening day 10th on the timesheets, while Hadjar was further adrift in 15th. The RB22 continues to be a real handful for both drivers, who were critical of the car after second practice.

The four-time world champion conceded that when one problem is solved, another immediately appears, putting Red Bull comfortably behind the likes of Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari.

Team principal Mekies conceded that the car is not performing at an adequate level, with problems still needing to be solved, before stressing that the team will get on top of the situation.

"We are far off and missing quite a bit of performance," Mekies told Sky DE. "I think you can hear that in the reactions of our drivers as well.

"So far, we haven’t managed to give them a car they can push with. So we have a number of fundamental issues to resolve on our end. That’s part of the start of the season.

"Of course, you don’t want to go through a problem-solving phase like this, but it’s part of the process. We need to understand the core of our limitations as soon as possible and take the necessary steps. Today is a bit of a frustrating day because our drivers can’t push, and you can see that on the track as well.

"But we are confident. It is not the first time we have gone through difficulties to understand our limitations. We have done that in the past as well. We will resolve this quickly and bring performance back."

The key setback for Red Bull is that it still does not “fully understand” the RB22, making progress difficult to come by.

"There are probably certain aspects of the car that we haven’t utilised well yet or don’t fully understand," added Mekies. "That is the work we need to do now in the coming hours, days and probably weeks to get back to the level where we want to be."