Verstappen brands Red Bull RB22 'undriveable' after Shanghai

Max Verstappen publicly blasted Red Bull’s RB22 as “undriveable” and a “disaster” after a troubled Friday at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, saying “we never had anything this bad,” that the car was “horrendous” and suffered from “no grip, no balance.” He quipped he was “practicing with Mario Kart,” warned he was losing “massive amounts of time in the corners,” and said the new power-unit changes left him “conflicted” about his future. Verstappen ultimately qualified eighth for the sprint, about 1.7–1.8 seconds off George Russell’s sprint pole, and described driveability problems that compounded through the day.

The on-track data and session details underscored those complaints: Verstappen slid from 11th in SQ1 to eighth in SQ3 as his deficit to Russell widened from around 1.140s in SQ1 to about 1.734s in the final shootout, and he had an off at the last corner during SQ2. Rookie teammate Isack Hadjar scraped into SQ3 and qualified 10th, roughly half a second behind Verstappen after a compromised SQ3 lap blamed on a battery deployment issue. Mercedes produced a dominant sprint qualifying performance, leaving Red Bull unusually exposed under the new 2026 regulations.

Technical analysis and team reaction amplified the concern. Sky Sports’ Anthony Davidson flagged a clear “torque spike” on onboard audio that preceded an oversteer moment and warned the unpredictable power delivery forced Verstappen to drive defensively; commentators judged the faults to be fundamental and unlikely to have “quick fixes.” Red Bull’s Laurent Mekies was heard apologizing on the radio (“Sorry, Max”) and said there was “a lot to learn,” pointing to the new power unit and race-trim energy management as key areas to understand. The team has acknowledged it has fallen further off the pace of Mercedes, Helmut Marko cautioned that Verstappen would not win the 2026 title even as Red Bull begins racing its own power unit, and engineers face a difficult puzzle to close the gap before the Sprint and the race.