Max Verstappen ruled out Red Bull competing with Mercedes and Ferrari this weekend, saying their rivals are too far ahead.
He finished the first race of the new season in sixth place, 54 seconds behind winner George Russell, having pitted once more than the Mercedes driver. Verstappen qualified 20th after experiencing a problem in Q1 which caused him to spin out.
Verstappen, who finished behind both Mercedes, Ferraris and Lando Norris’s McLaren in Melbourne, said it’s “impossible to know” if they will be more competitive at this weekend’s race in Shanghai.
“Honestly it’s such a jungle out there at the moment I think that it’s very hard to really know,” he said. “I would hope that it gets a bit closer, not even bigger than the gap that it was in Melbourne, but it’s clear that at the moment we cannot fight those cars.”
Verstappen’s new team mate Isack Hadjar qualified third on the grid in Melbourne and made a strong start before suffering a problem with his power unit which led to his early retirement. But Verstappen doubts the RB22 was capable of finishing higher than fifth.
“For sure there is a lot of potential, it’s just going to depend on if we can extract that I guess throughout the year,” he said.
“The gap of course was quite big and also in the race I think if I would have started a little bit up front I think the best that I could have done was one spot higher. We didn’t have the pace of the top four cars. We also had a lot of degradation and graining.
“But we’ll see what happens in the coming races, if we can close that gap a little bit.”
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2026 Chinese Grand Prix
- Drivers allowed higher power unit recharge limit for Chinese Grand Prix
- Mercedes’ lead is “not an impossible gap to close” – Hamilton
- Drivers want rules changes to cut “dangerous” risk of crash at start
- “At the moment we cannot fight those cars” – Verstappen
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Published by
Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine