Verstappen laments ‘disaster’ day for Red Bull in Sprint qualifying

Max Verstappen says Red Bull’s Friday at the Chinese Grand Prix was “a disaster pace-wise” as both drivers struggled for grip and barely made the top 10 in qualifying for the Sprint.

With only one free practice session to prepare the cars for Sprint qualifying, Red Bull was lacking pace in FP1 but it was still a surprise when both drivers were outside the top 10 in SQ1. The pair were again at risk in the second part of the session but just advanced, with Verstappen qualifying eighth and 1.7s off the pace set by George Russell.

“The whole day has been a disaster pace-wise,” Verstappen. “No grip. Honestly, I think that's the biggest problem –no grip, no balance. Just losing massive amounts of time in the corners, to be honest. And 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.”

The gap was even bigger for Isack Hadjar in 10th, as he was over two seconds adrift of Russell. Hadjar’s SQ3 attempt was slower than his SQ2 lap due to an issue that he says has yet to be investigated, but the gap to Mercedes was still a surprise.

“I don't know what happened yet and why we lost half a second, but I was happy with my lap,” Hadjar said. “It was good. In the end, I don't think that is going to change our weekend. I'm just happy to be not too far from Max.

“We need a bit more of everything. More grip, a bit more power maybe. Yeah, that's it. We're just very far from Mercedes, a lot more than we were last weekend. I was expecting the McLaren and the Ferrari to be ahead, but I didn't expect the gap overall to increase.”

Team principal Laurent Mekies says the current form confirms Red Bull’s pre-season expectations, and says the team needs to work on both power unit and chassis gains to try and improve its competitiveness.

“I think it’s what we said after pre-season testing,” Mekies said. “We said we felt we are around the fourth team. If anything, it was a touch better in Melbourne.

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