When Max Verstappen appeared in the Suzuka media pen after qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, the image was almost identical to the scene in Shanghai: the Red Bull driver once again took his time to speak to the written press, but the story did not sound very positive.
This time it was not so much about the technical regulations – Verstappen has already made his point about that multiple times, after which talks with the FIA and Formula 1 behind the scenes might be more constructive – but focused primarily on his team’s current struggles.
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Despite the track layout being completely different, there are several clear similarities with two weeks ago. Just like in China, Verstappen said the balance is all over the place, and as was the case then, all the set-up changes that have been tried have not had the desired effect in Japan.
“As soon as you really tried to push, for me, the balance was just all over the place,” Verstappen said.
Surviving the Esses – Verstappen lacks confidence in the RB22
Another issue is that the car balance changes completely from session to session. On Friday, Verstappen experienced two extremes – extreme understeer and then extreme oversteer. Normally, Red Bull is quite good at using Friday’s data to make effective changes overnight and then finding an acceptable balance just before qualifying, but in China and Japan even that offered no solution.
“In qualifying it was again a bit like FP1, and that was actually the worst version of everything,” Verstappen replied when asked by Autosport. “You can’t attack, you can’t push, you don’t feel comfortable in the car, and the car doesn’t do exactly what you want. I’m willing to take a lot of risk in qualifying, but there has to be at least some grip or some feeling, and that’s not there.”
Verstappen and Hadjar both struggled with the RB22’s balance leading to them respectively qualifying 11th and eighth in Suzuka
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images
Under the current regulations, taking risks is no longer really rewarded, according to drivers, but even the risks a driver can still take within the margins of energy management are not possible for Verstappen with the RB22. He simply does not have the confidence in the car and cannot predict how it will react to his input: “No, not with how it was in qualifying, so that’s difficult.”
The lack of confidence is most noticeable in the Esses, where the onboard footage shows how many steering corrections Verstappen has to make compared to, for example, the Mercedes drivers. “Yes, that’s the worst part of the lap, but honestly it’s everywhere. Also in the slow corners, it just didn’t work at all during Q2,” said the four-time world champion.
Why was the Australian Grand Prix better for Red Bull?
The first question that arises is how the contrast between the season opener in Melbourne and the following two race weekends can be so large. In Australia, Red Bull looked much more competitive, with Isack Hadjar qualifying third and Verstappen making significant progress on Sunday.
“We can see that Melbourne was better, and then somehow some things happened with the car while not even having touched the car. So that is always a big problem,” Verstappen admitted.
It should be noted that the competitive picture in Melbourne largely came down to the new power units, and Red Bull made a decent start in that respect. Some other teams – including McLaren – were not getting the maximum out of their package yet, partly due to the learning process with Mercedes HPP. As that changes, the shortcomings of the Red Bull car are becoming more apparent.
For this weekend, the Milton Keynes-based team has brought some upgrades – mainly to the sidepods area and the floor – but according to Verstappen they have not yet had the desired effect. “Well, I’m driving with that new package now, but that doesn’t feel very good yet. We have to analyse all those things, also why that’s happening.”
Does Red Bull still not fully understand its problems?
Red Bull is even unsure how to improve the current situation
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Formula 1 via Getty Images
Two things are clear. First, the problems are different from last year. Back then, Red Bull had a car that was difficult to set up – hard to get into the right window – but the baseline was at least competitive when everything clicked. This year, according to Verstappen, the problems are more fundamental than that: “I think there are some serious problems with the car right now and that’s not something you can fix with set-up.”
Hadjar also sees an important difference compared to last season. “It’s a big stretch to compare last year’s car to this one,” said Hadjar, who drove for sister squad Racing Bulls in 2025. “It’s completely new. I think last year’s car was fast. It was hard to drive, but fast. Now, our car is hard to drive and slow, so we need more efficiency.”
However, that immediately leads to the second point: Red Bull does not fully understand the current problems yet. The break between the grands prix in Japan and Miami theoretically offers a unique opportunity to come up with improvements, but for that the development direction must first be clear. And according to both drivers, that is precisely what is lacking at the moment.
Asked whether Red Bull knows what exactly needs to happen to get out of this situation, Hadjar replied: “No, not right now. What we are seeing this weekend makes no sense.” Verstappen shares that view: “Certain things are clearly going wrong. We didn’t expect those things to cause any issues, so that always makes it a bigger mystery.”
And that mystery may well be the most worrying aspect. Does this point to some correlation issues, something Red Bull has struggled with more often in the past?
“It’s just that we thought certain things would be okay based on what we saw in the factory, but on track, it doesn’t show the same numbers,” Verstappen explained.
These are the first aspects Red Bull must solve: correlation and truly understanding the RB22 in order to come up with effective upgrades. Time is pressing for both aspects, with some photos from the weighbridge in Shanghai also showing that weight is still an issue…
Verstappen is beyond all disappointment
Verstappen is ‘resigned’ to the situation, amid doubts over his F1 future
Photo by: Clive Rose / Formula 1 via Getty Images
At the start of this new F1 era, many expected a difficult beginning for Red Bull, but for a completely different reason – namely its own engine project. Ironically, that currently seems to be the least of its concerns, as Verstappen also confirmed.
“The engine isn’t even that bad, actually.”
The problems lie more in the chassis and aerodynamic package, which raises the question of whether Verstappen is disappointed with the machinery he has been given for this year.
“Well, I’m not even disappointed anymore, I’m long past that,” said the 28–year-old. “I’m beyond disappointed and I don’t even know what you call that. The problem is that I don’t even have the words for it anymore, so that’s already not good, I think.”
When the word “resignation” was suggested by one of the journalists present, the four-time world champion concluded: “Yeah, maybe that’s the right word. But that’s obviously not good.”
That assessment is accurate, as Red Bull – also behind the scenes – probably needs Verstappen’s input and commitment more than ever during this struggle.
That the picture from China and Japan looks poor is one thing, but more importantly, the technical team led by Pierre Wache must understand where to look for the root cause. That is the very first step required to bring Red Bull back to where, based on recent history, it arguably belongs. However, this is easier said than done.
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