Max Verstappen had a particularly difficult weekend in China. The four-time world champion lifted the veil on the problems currently handicapping his Red Bull.
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Max Verstappen is going through an unusually complicated start to the season in Formula 1. After the first two rounds of the 2026 championship, the Red Bull Racing driver has his lowest points total at this stage in eight years.
After a sixth-place finish at the season opener at the Australian Grand Prix, the Dutchman retired during the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix. This result leaves the four-time world champion with only eight points in the championship, already very far behind current leader George Russell.
A gap that has already reached 43 units after only two races, a particularly unusual scenario for the Dutch driver.
Repeated catastrophic starts
In Shanghai, Verstappen once again lost many positions as soon as the lights went out. Starting eighth on the grid, he quickly found himself at the back of the pack after a completely missed start.
According to him, this problem is directly linked to a lack of power at the crucial moment of the launch.
“In Melbourne, I had no battery. And here, it’s the same problem: I simply have no power. As soon as I release the clutch, the engine doesn’t respond.”
A technical fault that heavily compromised his chances from the first meters of the race, as had already been the case during the Sprint race the day before.
A race marked by a lack of performance
Despite this catastrophic start, Verstappen managed to gradually climb back up the hierarchy. As the laps went by, he managed to get back up to sixth position, hinting at a possible points haul.
But the difficulties did not stop there. The Red Bull driver also suffered from a global lack of performance throughout the stint.
“The start was a big problem, like yesterday during the sprint. Then, the race was exactly the same: a lot of graining on the tires. Impossible to attack, the pace was terrible and the balance of the car too.”
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For Verstappen, this Chinese weekend will remain one of the most complicated of recent seasons.
A retirement that worsens the situation
While he was in sixth place with about ten laps to go, the Dutchman’s race came to a brutal halt on the 45th lap.
A cooling problem with the ERS system forced the team to recall the car to the pits to avoid damaging certain mechanical components. This retirement sealed a dark weekend for Red Bull, already struggling throughout the race.
The difficulties encountered by Red Bull contrast sharply with the impressions left during winter testing at the Sakhir track. At the time, several rival teams still considered the Austrian team as one of the benchmarks of the field.
Verstappen however maintains that he was aware that the situation would be more complicated: “You don’t know what I know. I never thought we were close to Mercedes or Ferrari.”
According to him, the current hierarchy is therefore not a surprise, even if the situation observed in Shanghai proved to be particularly difficult.
Hope for a rebound in Japan
Despite everything, Verstappen remains hopeful that his team can quickly improve the situation. The next round of the championship, the Japanese Grand Prix, could allow Red Bull to bounce back after this complicated start to the season.
“I hope we will be a bit more competitive in Japan. Then, we will have a few weeks to bring more performance to the car.”
The Dutchman knows, however, that the competition will not stand still. Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren also continue to develop their monoplaces.
One thing is certain: for Red Bull and Verstappen, this start to the season is very far from the standards the team had become accustomed to in recent years.
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