Red Bull Racing endured an underwhelming opening day at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, conspicuously absent from the top of the timesheets.
Verstappen was fifth fastest in the opening practice hour, just over a second off the place, but slumped to 17th and more than two seconds adrift in the latter session.
That was partially explained by a different program from Red Bull Racing, which saw it use soft tyres as Free Practice 2 began before completing the bulk of its running on the mediums.
As such, it didn’t bank a representative qualifying simulation, leaving Verstappen and Sergio Perez down the order.
However, according to Red Bull’s motorsport advisor, Dr Helmut Marko, the choice of rear wing is also a significant contributing factor.
“We don’t have another rear wing, a smaller rear wing, as we see it on our competitors. It would be more helpful, for sure,” he explained.
A replacement cannot be flown to Vegas in time for qualifying, either.
Even still, the RB20 seems unsuited to the Las Vegas Strip circuit as Verstappen struggled for consistency.
“On the short run we didn’t go out with a soft tyre, and the long run was only partly good,” Marko explained.
“Some laps were competitive, but then the rear tyres were disappearing.
“There were flashes of speed. We just have to get consistency into it.
“We need more balance,” he added.
“On the single lap we can improve but on the long run, the tyre wear is a problem at the moment.”
The Vegas circuit was especially slippery as track action began on Thursday, with evolution bringing lap times down by more than 10 seconds over the course of the day.
That process is expected to continue through to the end of Saturday night’s race, making for a moving target for teams when it comes to car set-up.
“It was really slippery on track today: I think we struggled to make the tyres work, especially over one lap, and we were quite far off with the pace,” Verstappen said.
“On the long runs we started off a bit more competitively, but we still need to fine tune a few things.
“It is very cold and the conditions are quite unique around here. However, at the end of the day this is the same for everyone, so we need to understand what we are doing wrong.
“The issue for us is definitely tyre related as we have no grip and it feels like driving on ice.”
Verstappen holds a 62 point lead over Lando Norris in the drivers’ championship. Should the Dutchman head the competition by 60 points or more at the end of Saturday’s race, he will seal his fourth title.
However, Norris showed promising pace on Thursday, finishing second fastest to Lewis Hamilton by just 0.011s in Free Practice 2.
A final hour of practice remains ahead of qualifying in Vegas, which begins at 22:00 local time on Friday (17:00 AEDT Saturday).
Free Practice 3 begins at 18:30 local time (13:30 AEDT Saturday).
