Max Verstappen was deeply unimpressed with his car’s performance after taking eighth on the grid for the sprint race.
Both Red Bulls only narrowly made it into the final stage of qualifying. Verstappen was less than a tenth of a second away from being eliminated by Nico Hulkenberg in SQ2.
Verstappen said the car’s handling was fundamentally out of balance after Friday’s running.
“The whole day has been a disaster pace-wise,” he said. “No grip. I honestly think that’s the biggest problem: no grip, no balance, just losing massive amounts of time in the corners.
“Then, of course, because of that you start triggering other little problems. But the big problem for us is just the cornering is completely out.”
Teams can alter their cars’ set-ups between the sprint race and tomorrow’s qualifying session for the grand prix. However Verstappen said he isn’t sure how best to approach their problems.
“We’ll have a look,” he said. “I don’t know at the moment what we can do. We’ll see.”
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During the sole practice session Verstappen told his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase his front tyres “just completely die after turn three” on the Shanghai circuit. “I just understeer so much the front tyres are not responding any more.”
Later in the session he urged his team to check the car because it “feels broken.” He also complained about problems with his gear shifts.
Although Verstappen concentrated his criticism on his car’s handling after qualifying, during the session he complained about the delivery from his power unit. “Is this the deployment I get?” he asked. “It’s even worse now.”
“There’s nothing that I can do different?” he asked. Lambiase told him: “Nothing on your side.”
“I’ve really never had something this bad with everything together,” he added.
After the end of qualifying for the sprint race Verstappen told his team the car was “undriveable”.
Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies came on Verstappen’s radio to apologise about their car’s performance. “Sorry Max, tough one,” he said. “A lot to learn.”
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2026 Chinese Grand Prix
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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