Max Verstappen paints bleak Red Bull picture as ‘broken’ comment explained

Max Verstappen has shared more details about his struggles with his Red Bull RB21 in Sprint Qualifying in Brazil.

The Dutch driver’s championship aspirations took a blow in Sprint Qualifying as he could only finish in sixth overall, having found his car “broken” and “undrivable” according to radio messages at the end of SQ2.

Max Verstappen: I couldn’t rely on the car

With McLaren’s Lando Norris taking pole position as the championship leader set himself up strongly for the Sprint race, Verstappen’s hopes of further reducing his championship deficit from 36 points took a hit as he finished in sixth place in Sprint Qualifying.

Popping in a single flying lap in the soft-tyre session, his time was 0.337 down on Norris’ 1:09.243, while fellow championship contender Oscar Piastri clinched third place.

For Verstappen, he also must overcome both Mercedes drivers and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso if he’s to have any chance of mitigating the damage to his title tilt.

Having been heard complaining about the handling of his car during Sprint Qualifying, the Dutch driver wasn’t in a particularly good mood as he spoke to the media immediately after climbing out.

“[There was] a lot of vibration in the car. A lot of just ride problems. So not what we want,” he summed up.

“But, I mean, besides that, I think we just don’t have the grip, also.”

Having set the fastest first sector on his single attempt, the rest of his lap proved less competitive, with the four-time F1 World Champion revealing he had no faith in the overall balance of the Red Bull car.

“The middle sector is terrible, so I just can’t get the car to turn,” he said.

“But, at the same time, also, I can’t really rely on the rear, so, for us, just quite poor, I would say.”

Interlagos is under threat of severe wet conditions for Saturday, meaning the Sprint race is likely to take place in sodden conditions. Last year, Verstappen came alive in tricky conditions at the Brazilian venue, but he’s less hopeful of a turnaround in performance from Friday.

“We’ll find out,” he said.

“I mean, I think it’s quite clear that we are lacking something, and I’m not expecting suddenly to be miles better in the wet, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

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Laurent Mekies: Max Verstappen ‘very unhappy’ with the car

Speaking during the Sprint Qualifying session, Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies couldn’t hide the disappointment in his voice as he spoke to Sky F1 about Verstappen’s radio messages.

“Honestly, he is very unhappy with what the car does at the moment,” he summed up.

“When you cannot push the way you like the car to the limit, that’s the sort of feedback you get, and that’s fair enough and honest.

“It is also reflected in the lap time; it was a difficult SQ2. So, being in parc ferme, there is a limit to the amount of stuff that you can try. We will try to tweak what we can do, and then it’s learning for later on.”

With Mekies speaking at the end of SQ2, after two sessions in which drivers were mandated to use the medium compound tyre, the Frenchman said he didn’t believe the issues to be related to the car being unhappy on a particular compound.

“We would wish that it would be linked to the tyre compound,” he said.

“We didn’t have a great feeling either this morning on the soft, so it’s probably not compound-wise.

“It’s probably something we are still missing compared to the ideal window of the car around here, but again, there are still a couple of windows we have to correct that through the weekend.”

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