The fact that Red Bull didn’t help the Dutchman either Car between sprint and qualifying significantly changed: “We have changed a lot of things on the car and it makes zero difference,” he complains.

Verstappen was beside himself after qualifying: “The car is absolutely undriveable”

“We were completely wrong the whole weekend, the car is absolutely undrivable. I can’t even give a proper reference.”

In the past, Red Bull was often able to get a lot out of making adjustments, “but now nothing is working,” complains Verstappen. “That’s just not nice either. I can’t push. To be honest, every lap is a fight for survival for me. I’m not having any fun at all.”

“I don’t really feel like I have the car under control”

What bothers him most is that his car is “completely unpredictable”. “So every lap I do I think to myself: ‘All right, that’s it.’ I mean, can I go four tenths faster? Maybe. Can I be four tenths slower? Yes, the opportunity is also great,” he explains. “It’s just incredibly difficult.”

Can Red Bull get the starting problem from the sprint under control?

The four-time world champion complains about many problems in the car at the same time: “Oversteer, understeer,” he lists. “I don’t really feel like I have the car under control.”

In the sprint, Verstappen had a problem at the start that put him far behind because he was very slow to get off the mark. “Basically I had more or less the same problem as Liam (Lawson) in Australia,” he refers to the New Zealander’s snail start a week ago.

But he doesn’t know what exactly it was: “To be honest, I didn’t even ask,” he waves. He hopes that Red Bull will get the problem under control by tomorrow. “Otherwise I’ll be back at P20,” he says. But regardless of whether the start is good or bad, he doesn’t expect a good result on Sunday: “Realistically, we’re fighting for P7 or P8 anyway.”

Verstappen has little hope of a good race

Verstappen already knows: “It won’t be a fun race.” In addition to the already existing limitations, he struggled with fairly strong graining in the sprint. “Every time I did another lap on a set of tires it felt terrible,” he describes. “I honestly think tomorrow will be pretty tough.”

In Melbourne, after his crash in qualifying, Verstappen was able to fight his way up from the very back to sixth place, but that would probably be more difficult in China, because Alpine and Haas in particular seem to have taken a step. Oliver Bearman finished ahead of Verstappen in the sprint despite older tires, and he was beaten by Gasly twice in qualifying this weekend.

“These teams have probably taken a small step forward and we have probably taken a step back,” says Verstappen and hopes that things will be a little different on other tracks.

Hadjar: The others screwed up last week

Teammate Isack Hadjar, who came ninth behind Verstappen, was naturally not happy either: “We were at the limit of what we had as a package,” he complained, primarily criticizing the lack of downforce and grip.

A week ago, the Frenchman was the positive surprise of the qualifying in Melbourne with third place, but the big crash followed within just seven days – although he himself doesn’t notice such a strong drop in performance. “The others just screwed up last week. That’s all I can say.”

“I think we were eight tenths behind in Melbourne, on a shorter track. Here it’s a lot longer, which just exposes our weaknesses a little more. So the loss of time is bigger, but I think we have the same performance.”

By Norman Fischer, co-author: Oleg Karpov