Max Verstappen has slated his Red Bull as “undriveable” after suffering qualifying misery in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix.
For the first time in 11 years at Suzuka, and after qualifying on pole for the last four races at the circuit, Verstappen was knocked out of Q2, with Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad the driver who inflicted the final blow on the four-time F1 champion.
Verstappen will now start from 11th on the grid, with team Isack Hadjar also ahead of him after the French-Algerian driver qualified eighth. Lindblad will line up 10th.
After crashing out in qualifying in Australia, and only lining up eighth for the last race in China, Verstappen’s issues with F1’s new generation of cars continue unabated, with no sign of a recovery at this stage.
“The car never turns mid-corner,” bemoaned Verstappen, speaking to Sky Sports F1. “At the same time, this weekend again, just oversteer a lot on entry. It’s really difficult. Unpredictable.
“We thought we’d fixed it a little bit in FP3, I mean, there’s still a lot of understeer in the car. Now, in qualifying again, for me, it was undriveable. That’s something we need to look at.
“Also, I’m driving with a different aero package this weekend, yet it seems like that’s not working, so that’s also not very good.”
Asked what he meant by “undriveable”, he added, “We have problems I cannot explain in detail here that we know are there, sometimes a bit worse than other times.
“In qualifying, it just came back to a point where it was undriveable.”