{"id":269682,"date":"2025-11-07T21:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/269682\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T21:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:59:09","slug":"what-left-max-verstappen-shaking-his-head-after-sprint-qualifying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/269682\/","title":{"rendered":"What left Max Verstappen shaking his head after sprint qualifying"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Max Verstappen was left to rue \u201cpoor\u201d grip and \u201cride problems\u201d in his Red Bull as he suffered a disappointing qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix sprint race.<\/p>\n<p>The four-time world champion, who remains in title contention, could only manage a time good enough for sixth on the grid, having been beaten by both McLaren drivers, as well as Mercedes\u2019 George Russell and Aston Martin\u2019s Fernando Alonso.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/852\/max-verstappen\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Verstappen<\/a> complained his Red Bull car was \u201ccompletely broken\u201d and \u201cjust undriveable\u201d over team radio during the final part of qualifying at Interlagos.<\/p>\n<p>The Dutchman was seen shaking his head inside the cockpit as he crossed the line to take the chequered flag.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of vibration in the car, a lot of ride problems,\u201d Verstappen explained afterwards.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot what we want but besides that I think we just don\u2019t have the grip. The middle sector is terrible, I just can\u2019t get the car to turn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut at the same time also, I can\u2019t really rely on the rear. So for us it\u2019s quite poor I would say. It is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked if forecast rain would help his bid to move up the order in Saturday\u2019s sprint race, Verstappen replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know, we will find out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s quite clear we are lacking something and I\u2019m not expecting that suddenly to be miles better in the wet, but we\u2019ll see tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull can\u2019t cure Verstappen\u2019s issues    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/si202511070816.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Verstappen could only manage sixth \" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.5\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Verstappen could only manage sixth<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admitted the team cannot cure Verstappen\u2019s woes in time for the sprint.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at sectors one and three, we are hundredths away from Norris, and middle sector with the most corners, it\u2019s basically no grip, which means we don\u2019t have enough downforce,\u201d Marko told Sky Sports F1.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s something we can\u2019t cure for the Sprint but hopefully, with the data we get, we can adapt and make it more competitive for the main race.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies said: \u201cHonestly, he&#8217;s very unhappy with what the car does at the moment, so that&#8217;s what you heard on the radio.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you cannot push the car to the limit the way you like, that&#8217;s the sort of feedback you get. That&#8217;s fair enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Verstappen&#8217;s teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/f1\/racer\/975014\/yuki-tsunoda\" data-entity-type=\"external\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> qualified a disappointing 18th.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our F1 Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen was left to rue \u201cpoor\u201d grip and \u201cride problems\u201d in his Red Bull as he suffered&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,817,825,806,805,803,804,946,85],"class_list":["post-269682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}