Red Bull had a tough start to the Las Vegas Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen finishing 17th and Sergio Perez 19th in the second practice session.

The team struggled for speed on the long straights of the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, which requires a low-drag setup similar to Monza. Unfortunately, Red Bull brought a rear wing with higher drag, putting them at a disadvantage compared to faster teams like Mercedes and McLaren.

This mistake made Red Bull up to 7 km/h slower on the straights, based on GPS data. The team tried to fix the issue by removing a Gurney flap from the rear wing, but it hasn’t been enough. Although part of the gap may be due to engine settings and a different tyre plan, the lack of pace is clear.

Verstappen and Perez started with not very good results in FP1, finishing fifth and tenth, but they dropped back even further in FP2, which may have been caused by the wrong rear wing.

However, Red Bull will have to stick with the current setup as the team’s motorsport advisor Helmut Marko confirmed they won’t be able to bring a low-drag rear wing in time.

"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 told Motorsport.com.

Marko then explained that the disappointing result in FP2 was due to Red Bull using a different run-plan strategy.

"On the short run we didn't go out with a soft tyre, and the long run was only partly good," he 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."

 He continued: "We need more balance.

"On the single lap we can improve. But on the long run, the tyre wear is a problem at the moment.

"Tomorrow is a different day.

"You maybe saw it a lot of times, people will be fastest on Friday or Thursday, but it doesn't mean that they are fast in the race..."