Article

To news overview © XPBimages

Red Bull has revealed there is enough damage on Max Verstappen's car 'to keep the team busy' following a scary moment for the four-time F1 champion in practice for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Verstappen was getting up to speed in the second session at Melbourne's Albert Park when he went careering off into the gravel at Turn 10, just doing enough to prevent a more serious incident from occurring.

But as he bounced through the trap, it shredded the floor, with bits of carbon fibre flying up behind him, as can be seen in the video below.

Assessing the impact and the work required, chief engineer Paul Monaghan said: "I'll say there's enough to keep us busy."

He added, "It's recoverable. It's nothing that drastic, but it's a bit of a thump, so we'll tidy it up and go again."

Verstappen went on to finish sixth quickest at the end of the day, 0.637s behind pace-setting home hero Oscar Piastri in his McLaren, who was only one of two drivers to dip below 80 seconds for a lap.

Piastri posted a leading time of 1:19.729s, 0.214s ahead of Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, with Verstappen's damaged Red Bull recording a 1:20.366s.

Overall, Monaghan was relatively pleased with how the RB22 performed, particularly given that the team has developed its own power unit for the first time in its history.

"Fantastic," exclaimed Monaghan, in describing Red Bull's opening salvo. "Brand new engine, our own, new car, new rules, and both cars went out of the pit lane at the start of P1, and both were competitive straight off."

Referring to Verstappen's new team-mate Isack Hadjar specifically, he said: "Isack's getting his head around it. He's quite forthright. He knows what he seems to want. Max is typically driven, a competitive soul.

"The car is reasonably well balanced. We had a couple of little issues in P2, so that hindered us a little.

"Our main objective tomorrow is to sort out how we get laps out of this car, whether it's qualifying or a race situation, and how we learn to repeatedly do that, and know we're going to get it right. That's our biggest thing."