Max Verstappen has asked Red Bull to investigate a very worrying behavior of his car after particularly difficult sprint qualifying in Canada.
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Max Verstappen did not hide his frustration on Friday evening in Montreal after a particularly laborious sprint qualifying session. The four-time world champion seemed to struggle for a long time behind the wheel of his RB22 on the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit.
From the first minutes of the session, the Dutchman repeatedly complained on the radio about a very unstable behavior of the rear of his car, especially on the many bumps of the Canadian track.
The situation even became critical in SQ2, where Verstappen narrowly avoided elimination before finally securing his qualification for the top 10. He then took fifth place on the sprint grid, but never really regained confidence in his car.
“I am not surprised, because the feelings in the car were really not good” admitted the Red Bull driver after the session.
An unusual and very worrying problem
Beyond the simple lack of performance, Verstappen mainly described a particularly unusual and concerning problem regarding the physical behavior of his car on the Montreal bumps.
The world champion explained that the car’s movements were so violent that he sometimes had trouble keeping his feet properly positioned on the pedals.
“I suffered a lot with the behavior of the car, he explained. On the bumps, I couldn’t even keep my foot on the accelerator.”
Then Verstappen detailed an even more worrying situation: “My feet were literally coming off the pedals. This made the car extremely difficult to drive consistently and it’s something we absolutely need to analyze.”
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These statements perfectly illustrate how much Red Bull seems to have lost some of its composure on this type of bumpy urban circuit.
Red Bull stuck until after the sprint
The main problem for Red Bull is now regulatory. With parc fermé rules applied from sprint qualifying, the team will not be able to change the RB22’s settings before the sprint race on Saturday without breaking the rules.
Verstappen will therefore probably have to cope with this difficult-to-control car for several more hours.
The Dutchman nevertheless hopes that some analyses will allow the team to better understand the origin of the problem before the main qualifying of the Grand Prix.
“It really wasn’t pleasant to drive, Verstappen insisted. We will have to keep this setup for the sprint, but there are several things we need to understand to improve the situation for qualifying.”
Mercedes takes the lead in Montreal
While Verstappen was struggling, Mercedes largely dominated this first Canadian day. George Russell took the sprint pole ahead of his teammate Kimi Antonelli, confirming the excellent progress of the German team since the arrival of its new upgrades.
Red Bull now appears to be under more pressure than before, especially on circuits where the car’s characteristics complicate tire management and chassis stability.
Fifth on the sprint grid, Verstappen remains ideally placed to limit the damage. But given his level of frustration on Friday evening, it is clear that the world champion now expects quick answers from Red Bull.
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