Max Verstappen’s bleak Red Bull assessment: ‘The car is completely undriveable’

Max Verstappen says his Red Bull Formula 1 car is “completely undriveable” after major set-up changes for Chinese Grand Prix qualifying “made zero difference”.

Red Bull has been on the back foot all weekend in Shanghai, with Max Verstappen out of the points in the sprint after a poor start from eighth dropped him to 14th before he recovered to a distant ninth.

In qualifying for Sunday’s grand prix, Red Bull’s form failed to improve despite a radical set-up overhaul, with Verstappen almost a second off polesitter Andrea Kimi Antonelli in eighth.

Asked what his expectations were for Sunday’s race, Verstappen replied: “Yeah, I don’t know.

“Not really a lot, to be honest. We changed a lot on the car and it made zero difference.

“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.”

He gave an even more glum answer in the television pen: “We are where we should be, and that’s probably where we will be racing tomorrow.”

Verstappen added that the Red Bull is losing a little with its power unit, but insists that isn’t the main problem.

“There’s a little bit of difference to the power unit side, but that’s probably not the biggest side where we lose so much,” he said.

“I cannot push at all because the car doesn’t let me, so that’s why I don’t really feel in control of the car. It’s just spinning.”

The four-time world champion says Red Bull figured out what caused his poor start in the sprint, but noted, “hopefully we can fix it, or else I’ll be P20 again”.

He also noted that it wasn’t the repeat of the battery charge issues a number of drivers suffered at the start of the Australian Grand Prix.

Looking ahead, Verstappen was wary of suggesting the gap to the leaders can be circuit-specific, saying: “I hope so, but we’re always going to be a P4 team if we don’t change anything on the car.”

Team-mate Isack Hadjar did no better in qualifying on Saturday afternoon, with the Frenchman ninth behind Verstappen.