{"id":825073,"date":"2026-03-14T10:46:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:46:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/825073\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T10:46:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:46:43","slug":"every-lap-is-survival-in-undriveable-red-bull-f1-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/825073\/","title":{"rendered":"Every lap is survival in “undriveable” Red Bull F1 car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen<\/a> lamented Red Bull’s “undriveable” Formula 1 car as he suggested “every lap is like survival” after qualifying eighth for the Chinese Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Verstappen finished ninth in Saturday morning’s sprint after a disastrous start dropped him down the order like a brick, and will be eighth on the grid after Red Bull was all at sea with its RB22.<\/p>\n

The Milton Keynes squad prided itself on its dramatic car set-up turnarounds between practice and qualifying last year, but despite turning the car upside down once more there were no miracles.<\/p>\n

Both in the sprint and in grand prix qualifying Verstappen suffered the nightmare of every race car driver – a car that both oversteers and understeers and won’t communicate what it will decide to do next.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Lintao Zhang \/ LAT Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It left Verstappen nine tenths off pole in ninth, with team-mate Isack Hadjar<\/a> another tenth in arrears.<\/p>\n

“We changed a lot on the car, and it makes zero difference,” Verstappen explained. “The whole weekend we’ve been off, the car is completely undriveable. I cannot even put a bit of a reference in. Every lap is like survival. The balance is really disconnected.”<\/p>\n

When asked where his issues come from, he replied: “A little bit on the engine, but that’s not probably the biggest side. We lose so much with the car at the moment around here. Plus, also I cannot push at all because the car doesn’t let me. So that’s why I don’t really feel in control of the car. It’s just really not how it should be. From lap one of this new regulation I’ve not enjoyed this car, for sure.”<\/p>\n

It means Verstappen has little hope of moving up the order, thinking he will finish Sunday’s race “where I’m at”.<\/p>\n

Verstappen revealed his start issue was similar to Liam Lawson’s dramatically sluggish getaway in Melbourne, but ruled out any problems charging his battery.<\/p>\n

“The battery was fine. But I didn’t get enough power from the engine. I basically had the same problem as what Liam had more or less in Australia. I hope we can fix it. Otherwise I’m P20 again,” the four-time world champion said.<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen has not enjoyed the 2026 Red Bull F1 car for one second thus far<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Thompson \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Red Bull didn’t look as uncompetitive in Melbourne, where Hadjar qualified third and a crash prevented Verstappen from occupying the second row too.<\/p>\n

But according to Verstappen’s new team-mate, last week’s result was more down to Red Bull’s rivals underperforming than anything to do with Red Bull’s own car performance.<\/p>\n

“No, it’s not different,” he said. “I think we were eight tenths off in Melbourne on a smaller track. Here it’s a lot bigger, which just exposes us a bit more. So, the lap time loss is bigger, but we have the same performance. I think they [Ferrari<\/a> and McLaren<\/a>] really messed up last weekend. That’s all I can say.<\/p>\n

“We were on the edge of what we have as a package. So we suffer for now, and then we’re going to make progress anyway through the season.”<\/p>\n

Photos from Chinese GP – Saturday<\/p>\n

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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Fans\"\/<\/p>\n


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\"Carlos<\/p>\n


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\"Arvid<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Alexandra<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Liam<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Liam<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Lando<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Gabriel<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Oliver<\/p>\n


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\"Graeme<\/p>\n


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\"Laura<\/p>\n


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\"Lance<\/p>\n


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\"Oliver<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"George<\/p>\n


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\"Pierre<\/p>\n


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\"Mickey<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"George<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"George<\/p>\n


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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\"Max<\/p>\n


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\"Oscar<\/p>\n


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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Andrea<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Max<\/p>\n


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\"George<\/p>\n


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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\"Oscar<\/p>\n


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\"Arvid<\/p>\n


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\"Arvid<\/p>\n


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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Oliver<\/p>\n


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\"Nico<\/p>\n


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\"Franco<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\"Liam<\/p>\n


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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Nico<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"George<\/p>\n


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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\"George<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"George<\/p>\n


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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\"Oliver<\/p>\n


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\"Charles<\/p>\n


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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\"Max<\/p>\n


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\"George<\/p>\n


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\"George<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Lewis<\/p>\n


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\n Chinese GP – Saturday, in photos
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\"Gabriel<\/p>\n


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\"George<\/p>\n


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\"Andrea<\/p>\n


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– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen lamented Red Bull’s “undriveable” Formula 1 car as he suggested “every lap is like survival” after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,236353,393,236824,707,4884,1085,1073,237164,12,1144,749,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-825073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-chinese-gp","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-f1-chinese-grand-prix","12":"tag-formula-1","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-isack-hadjar","15":"tag-max-verstappen","16":"tag-max-verstappen-every-lap-is-survival-in-undriveable-red-bull-f1-car","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-red-bull-racing","20":"tag-scotland","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116227139583208857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=825073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/825073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=825073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=825073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=825073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}