‘Every lap is survival’: Max Verstappen reflects on F1 Chinese GP qualifying woe

14 Mar, 11:22. UK edition

The four-time F1 champion Max Verstappen cut a disconsolate figure after qualifying eighth in Shanghai, saying Red Bull ‘have never had it this bad’

Max Verstappen condemned his Red Bull’s performance as having reduced his efforts to a matter of “survival” in merely trying to complete a lap in Shanghai.

From the off the four-time champion had not been happy in the buildup to Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, dismissing his car on Friday as undriveable and saying: “We have never had anything this bad.”

Verstappen qualified only in eighth and finished the sprint out of the points in ninth on Saturday morning. There had been hope setup changes would reap some reward in qualifying but Verstappen was left even further adrift. He finished a full second slower than the pole-sitter, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

“We change a lot on the car, and it makes zero difference,” Verstappen said. “The whole weekend we’ve been off. The car is completely undriveable. I cannot even put a bit of a reference in. Every lap is like survival.

“We turned it upside down and it was exactly the same, so I’m expecting exactly the same tomorrow. In the past, sometimes we would throw it upside down and it would work. Now, nothing works.”

In Australia, Verstappen made a recovery drive from 20th to sixth but the Red Bull’s shortcomings have been brutally exposed in China. With the RB22 lacking balance, it was all but impossible to push for a fast lap time.

“It’s very inconsistent. Whatever lap I do, I am like: ‘All right, well, that is it,’” he added. “Can I go four 10ths faster? Maybe. Can I go four 10ths slower? Yeah, that’s a big chance as well because it’s just all over the place. It’s just incredibly difficult. It’s incredibly tough to drive. There’s no balance, I cannot lean on the car. Every lap is a fight. It’s just very difficult.”

Red Bull have built their own engines for the first time and in pre-season testing seemed to have made a solid job of it, but at race weekends the team that once dominated F1 are far from where they want to be. Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar came 15th in the sprint race and finished ninth in qualifying.

They were outpaced by the Alpine of Pierre Gasly in qualifying as well as Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. On Friday the Red Bull team principal, Laurent Mekies, had admitted that the team had to improve in every area.

“The gap to Ferrari and Mercedes is substantial, it’s probably half in the straight, half in the corner,” he said. “There is not one single area that we need to improve. It’s a 360 improvement. It’s going to be a development race. There is not one single area that we pinpoint in terms of the gap to the competition but it’s going to be a full effort from all departments.”

The world champion, Lando Norris, also said his McLaren had a performance deficit to Mercedes and Ferrari after he qualified in fifth. The British driver said McLaren, constructors’ champions in 2025, did not know why they were losing significant amounts of time to the frontrunners.

“My final sector has been pretty poor and we have been losing a little bit on the straights to some of the other cars, which we need to understand why,” said Norris. “The last corner here is like my worst corner of the season, I can’t get it right, and I made quite a big mistake on my final lap there. Where we are now is where we deserve to be and where we should be.”

Lewis Hamilton ended last season without a podium for the first time and at one stage he was so disillusioned he even called for Ferrari to replace him, but he finished fourth a week ago in Australia and will be intent on going one better on Sunday after qualifying in third to record a first top-three finish in 477 days.

“But maybe with strategy, maybe something can happen, maybe with the start, maybe there’s a way. I definitely need to make sure I don’t kill my tyres trying to either keep up with them or keep one behind. I need to drive better tomorrow.”Max Verstappen condemned his Red Bull’s performance as having reduced his efforts to a matter of “survival” in merely trying to complete a lap in Shanghai.

From the off the four-time champion had not been happy in the build up to Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, dismissing his car on Friday as undriveable, admitting: “We have never had anything this bad.”

Verstappen qualified only in eighth and finished the sprint out of the points in ninth on Saturday morning. In qualifying, there had been hope setup changes would reap some reward but Verstappen was left even further adrift. He finished a full second slower than the pole-sitter, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

“We turned it upside-down and it was exactly the same, so I’m expecting exactly the same tomorrow. In the past, sometimes we would throw it upside-down and it would work. Now, nothing works.”

“It’s very inconsistent. Whatever lap I do, I am like: ’All right, well, that is it’,” he added. “Can I go four 10ths faster? Maybe. Can I go four 10hs slower? Yeah, that’s a big chance as well because it’s just all over the place. It’s just incredibly difficult. It’s incredibly tough to drive. There’s no balance, I cannot lean on the car. Every lap is a fight. It’s just very difficult.”

Red Bull have built their own engines for the first time and in pre-season testing seemed to have made a solid job of it, but at race weekends the team that once dominated F1 are far from where they want it to be. Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar came 15th in the sprint race and finished ninth in qualifying.

They were outpaced by the Alpine of Pierre Gasly in qualifying as well as Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. On Friday the Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies had admitted that the team had to improve in every area.

The world champion Lando Norris admitted that McLaren had a performance deficit to Mercedes and Ferrari after he qualified in fifth. Norris said McLaren, constructors’ champions in 2025, did not know why they were losing significant amounts of time to the front-runners.

“My final sector has been pretty poor and we have been losing a little bit on the straights to some of the other cars which we need to understand why,” said Norris, who beat Max Verstappen to the world title in 2025. The last corner here is like my worst corner of the season, I can’t get it right, and I made quite a big mistake on my final lap there. Where we are now is where we deserve to be and where we should be.”

Lewis Hamilton said he is “hunting and chasing” Mercedes as he eyes the first podium of his Ferrari career. Hamilton ended last season without a podium for the first time but finished fourth a week ago in Australia, and will be intent on going one better on Sunday to record a first top-three finish in 477 days, having started from third on the grid.

“We’re hunting, we’re chasing, and I know everyone is geared up to just do everything they can to close that gap to Mercedes,” said Hamilton. “It’s highly unlikely that we will be able to beat them in the race. Our statistics show they are between four and six 10ths faster than us. But maybe with strategy, maybe something can happen, maybe with the start, maybe there’s a way. I definitely need to make sure I don’t kill my tyres trying to either keep up with them or keep one behind. I need to drive better tomorrow.”