No improvement in sight
Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s nightmare weekend in China continues without any apparent glimmer of hope. The Dutchman remains consistently faster than teammate Isack Hadjar, but the role of third force that the RB22 seemed to have in Melbourne has completely vanished in Shanghai. Verstappen will start eighth in tomorrow’s GP, behind not only Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren but also Pierre Gasly’s Alpine. And right behind him and Hadjar, Ollie Bearman’s Haas is also chomping at the bit. In short, Red Bull is a midfield team at the moment.
Read more Antonelli is not satisfied: “It would be nice to bring Italy back to victory”
Speaking with journalists present in Shanghai, Verstappen certainly didn’t sugarcoat it: “We made many changes to the car, but we didn’t get any improvement – the Dutch #3 stated – we’ve been out of sync all weekend. The car is practically undriveable. I can’t find any reference point. I just can’t push, the car won’t let me.
That’s why I can’t stop under braking, I really don’t have control of the car. I hope that maybe on other tracks we could be slightly closer, but that’s not the case at the moment“.
Read more Norris: “Our advantage over Ferrari is the engine, but they are better in the corners than Mercedes”
According to the four-time world champion, the home-made power unit from the Milton Keynes team is not the main problem: “In part, yes, it’s the engine’s fault obviously, but that’s not the main problem – he commented – at the moment, we’re mostly losing a lot of time because of the car itself”. And a very long Sunday is expected for tomorrow: “We will probably fight with Gasly’s Alpine“, his prediction.
