Verstappen demands Red Bull improvements after 'messy' Canada

Max Verstappen has demanded improvements from Red Bull with its trackside operations after a "messy" first two days of the Canadian Grand Prix weekend. 

On a weather-disrupted Friday in Montreal, Verstappen missed most of FP2 after an ERS problem on his RB20, with the car also not featuring near the top of the times in FP3 but he did top the first segment of qualifying. 

The world champion ultimately took second on the grid, having set the exact same time as pole-sitter George Russell, who set the 1:12.000 effort first. 

In Q2, Verstappen was 0.807s down on Russell's time, and described how he felt matching the Mercedes would be impossible on a far-from-smooth weekend for the team. 

"In general, I think it wasn't a bad qualifying, probably Q3 was the weakest of the sessions for Mercedes, so being on the exact same lap time is great," Verstappen told media including RacingNews365. 

"But in hindsight, when you look at their pure pace, I’ll take second. Because after Q2, I saw their lap times, I was like: 'There is no way that I can do something like that’.

"Then, of course, there was a little bit of rain in between, like a few spits here and there, but the weekend [has] again a bit messy from our side, just too many little issues.

"From there onwards, we tried to, of course, find the best possible balance with the car. We did get a decent balance in qualifying. 

"I was quite happy with it. But we need to be able to just have cleaner weekends without issues, and that will help us."

Verstappen's Canada problems

Last time out in Monaco, the RB20 struggled badly over the kerbs and bumps, long-term problems Verstappen felt had been masked by the dominance of the team over the past two seasons. 

Whilst improvements and the track layout have soothed the problems, Verstappen still felt the underlying issues remained.

"We're still struggling with the same things, but of course, the track layout helps compared to Monaco, where Monaco has a lot more low-speed, so it's really important to have good ride and mechanical grip," he added.

"Here, of course, there's more aero involved. Of course, there are a few places still where you need to ride kerbs or you have bumpy places, but we know those limitations. 

"We need to just work on that, but that's why I think to be P2 here is alright."