Following the Monaco misery last time out, Max Verstappen’s struggles continue at Montréal. Reminiscent of Australia, the RB20 saw smoke coming out the back in yesterday’s FP2 session.
Regarding this, the Dutchman shared some concerning words, ahead of the 2024 Canadian GP.
Max Verstappen tense about ‘implications’ of RB20 engine issue after ERS fire in FP2
As the first day of practice kicked off, Max Verstappen caught himself on a rollercoaster ride in wet/dry FPs. Initially, in FP1, he grabbed the P5 spot after a hard-fought 1:26.502 lap time. However, things worsened in the FP2 session, where he completed just four laps.
Subsequently, on Lap 4 of his FP2 run, he forced his RB20 back into the pits. As he headed into his garage, he commented on the radio: “Can you get the fans? I smell a bit of smoke.”
The issue was caused by the Energy Recovery System (ERS) inside the car early in the session. Ultimately, he withdrew from FP2, leaving him 18th (1:19.311) in the timesheets.
The ERS, luckily, won’t affect the Dutchman too much with the engine run in FP1 and FP2 being an old engine. A replacement is within the allocations and leaves him with a new engine for FP3.
Later, in the post-session, he admitted that his FP2 run was “definitely not how he would have liked to get on” after his RB20 failed on Lap 4. Briefing on it, he started by saying:
“Yeah, unfortunately, in FP2, not many laps for me.”
“There was a suspected electrical issue, so they told me to box and they’re investigating now. I haven’t been back in the garage yet, but I’m sure soon we’ll figure out what it is.”
With direct F1 rivals completing over 15 laps, the Red Bull #1 watched over the session from his team’s hospitality. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso (P1) and Lance Stroll (P3) ran over 25 laps, whilst Haas’ Kevin Magnussen rounded 15 laps. This surely was disappointing for the reigning F1 Champ, who’s eyeing for to become the ‘pole-sitter’ this Sunday. Reflecting on this, he added,
“It’s not ideal.”
“I would have liked to drive more laps. Some other people had a few more laps in the dry, a few more laps now in the wet.”
Despite this, he confessed that his biggest concern was chasing answers for what happened and, more importantly, understanding its potential ‘implications’. Explaining this, he further added,
“I think it’s more important to just figure out what actually happened, and what kind of implications that will have for this weekend or the rest of the year.”
These words of concern from Verstappen comes before Helmut Marko was caught confirming the RB20’s engine problem.
Helmut Marko confirms RB20’s ‘problem is on the engine side’
In another separate interview, Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s Driver Development Head, backed up Verstappen’s statement of the RB20’s engine issue. Reflecting on this, the 81-year-old veteran confirmed that the problem is “on the electrical part of the engine“. Talking about this, he said,
“The problem is on the engine side. We have to take the engine out now to find the exact reason, but it is on the electric part of the engine.”
Although finding the situation ‘annoying’, he remains hopeful that his RB20 will bounce back if the FP3 runs on dry conditions. Adding more, he explained,
“Of course, it’s annoying because the first session was already mostly wet and without conclusions, but for the set-up let’s hope that [Saturday] is dry during that final practice session.”
“If we get one complete dry session then it doesn’t hurt so much.”
“I hope that we can make steps with the new set-up for this weekend. I mean, when Max was out on track, he set purple times in sector two, so that looks promising.”
In any case, Max Verstappen will try for a comeback with his RB20 today at the legendary Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in the FP3 session. The third practice run kicks off at 16:30 PM (UK time) today. After that, the qualification rounds will start at 20:00 PM to decide the starting grid for tomorrow’s 2024 Canadian GP.
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