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What is behind Red Bull's struggles in Monza practice sessions? Red Bull faces a significant amount of work overnight after a difficult opening day at the Italian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen admitting that the team is still struggling to find the right balance with its car at Monza. The four-time world champion did not take part in FP1, with Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa taking over his car for the opening session. Iwasa spent the early part of the session running aero rakes as the team gathered valuable aerodynamic data before moving on to more performance-focused runs. The Japanese driver finished 17th with a 1:24.873, although his primary objective was data collection rather than chasing a competitive lap time. Liam Lawson, meanwhile, enjoyed a more promising FP1, finishing fourth after running two sets of soft tyres. However, Red Bull's pace dropped away in FP2, with Verstappen ending the session only ninth with a 1:23.377 and Lawson 12th with a 1:23.660. Verstappen appeared frustrated throughout the session, complaining about the behaviour of his car and returning to the pits for a front-wing change. With Mercedes' George Russell setting the pace in 1:22.559, Verstappen was more than eight tenths of a second away from the benchmark. The Dutchman admitted that Red Bull had struggled to find the right balance. Verstappen also acknowledged that the gap to the leading cars was currently larger than Red Bull would like, although he remains hopeful of making progress before qualifying. "It was tricky to get the balance of the car right today and we will need to work on this for tomorrow to find a little bit more lap time. Our gap is still big compared to the front runners, but I hope that we can close it a little bit in Qualifying over one lap." The Red Bull driver expects the team to be more competitive over race distances, but admitted that predicting its long-run performance remains difficult at this stage. "Hopefully we will be even closer in the race and it will come together a bit more on the long runs, but this is trickier to predict." Red Bull will now spend the evening analysing the data and searching for a more suitable setup. Despite his difficult afternoon, Verstappen was pleased that Iwasa had been given the opportunity to drive the car in FP1. "We are looking at what we can do overnight with the car and see if we can make some positive changes and try and get the true corner balance together. Of course, it was only FP2 for me today, but it was good that Ayumu got a chance to drive." Lawson focuses on long-run performanceLawson's day was also heavily focused on race preparation rather than qualifying performance. After his encouraging fourth-place finish in FP1, the Racing Bulls driver slipped to 12th in FP2. However, he explained that Red Bull deliberately concentrated on long runs during the second session and completed relatively few short runs. "It’s been a productive day. We were very focused on long runs today, particularly in FP2." Lawson completed a large number of laps, gathering information that could become important during Sunday's race. However, the New Zealander admitted that Red Bull is currently lacking performance compared with its rivals in the low-downforce configuration required at Monza. "We did a lot of laps but didn’t really do many short runs, so I reckon we’ll focus on that tomorrow. Compared to the front runners we are definitely not able to match what they can do in terms of downforce here, but there’s been some good learnings from today, and we will try and see what we can tomorrow." Iwasa delivers another valuable FP1 outingIwasa was given another opportunity to drive the Red Bull during FP1 as Verstappen sat out the session. The Japanese driver followed a programme similar to the one he completed earlier in the season at Barcelona, beginning the session with aerodynamic testing before switching to more performance-oriented running. "I think we had a successful session. It was quite a similar run plan to the session I did in Barcelona earlier this season, with a rake on the car at the beginning of the session." The aero rake allowed Red Bull's engineers to collect valuable information about the car's aerodynamic behaviour at Monza. Iwasa therefore viewed the session as a positive one despite finishing down the order. "We collected a lot of aero data before switching to more performance-oriented runs, which was good, and I think we gained some valuable information for the rest of the weekend." "Overall, it was a good session for the Team and I think we can be pleased with what we achieved." The Japanese driver also spoke about the importance of his FP1 appearances, particularly with Formula 1's latest generation of cars. "Driving in FP1 is always a huge experience for a driver. Whenever I get the chance to do these sessions, I’m always learning something and every session is important. That’s particularly true here, with these new regulation cars." Wache: Red Bull must understand balance issuesRed Bull Technical Director Pierre Wache praised Iwasa for completing a demanding aerodynamic testing programme and helping the team gather information for Verstappen. "We started this morning with Ayumu in for Max and, once again, he did a great job. He had a lot to get through, with plenty of data to collect from aero testing, and then he tried to provide some direction in terms of set-up for Max. He did a good job with that and we know we can rely on him." Once Verstappen returned to the cockpit in FP2, Red Bull continued its aerodynamic investigations before encountering problems with the car's balance. "With Max back in the car this afternoon, we continued the aero tests, just to verify a few things, and I think that went in the right direction." However, Wache admitted that Verstappen experienced balance problems similar to those seen at the Dutch Grand Prix. The team has already evaluated several potential solutions and will now have to decide which changes to implement overnight. "We then had a few issues with the balance on Max’s car, a little bit like in Zandvoort, so we need to try to understand why that is. We have evaluated a few things, so we now have some choices to make and fix the issues for tomorrow through the set-up and car components." Wache was also pleased with Lawson's progress, particularly after the limited running he received at Zandvoort. "For Liam, it was another productive day and it was good for him to get more time in the car than he had in practice in Zandvoort. It really helps to have that continuity across sessions and he did a very good job again today." Despite the difficulties, Red Bull's engineers are not writing off the weekend. Wache acknowledged that the team traditionally tends to be stronger over long runs than on a single lap, potentially giving Verstappen and Lawson an opportunity to recover some ground during the race. However, there is significant work to complete before qualifying. Wache also highlighted one of Red Bull's recurring characteristics. "We have a lot of work to do tonight to try to close the gap to the top before Qualifying. It’s normally a little tricky for us on one lap and we are better on long runs. So, let’s see tomorrow."