The World Championship leader, who only needs three points to secure the World Championship title, was a whole two seconds behind leading Lewis Hamilton in the second free practice. One of the reasons was that his car lacked the smaller rear wing after a packing blunder in the garage.
We don't have another smaller rear wing, like the others have. It would have really been good to have it, says Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko to Auto Motor und Sport.
Marko says that the Red Bull cars lost up to six tenths on the main straight due to the lack of the smaller rear wing. And they won't have time to get the rear wing ready for the race on Sunday morning Swedish time.
The Dutch F1 star, however, did not blame the faulty rear wing for his poor performance in practice, but rather the slippery conditions and difficulties with tire temperature in the Nevada cold.
The problem for us was definitely tire-related as we had no grip. It felt like driving on ice, he says.
