Verstappen calls China Sprint qualifying a “disaster”
Red Bull endured a difficult Friday in Shanghai, with Max Verstappen qualifying a disappointing eighth for the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint. Teammate Isack Hadjar was down in 10th, leaving the team well off the pace of title rivals Mercedes.
“The whole day has been a disaster pace-wise,” Verstappen admitted. “No grip, no balance, just losing massive amounts of time in the corners. That’s the biggest problem. And then, of course, because of that, you start triggering other little problems, but the big issue for us is just the cornering—it’s completely out.”
Despite making Q3 after crashing out in Q1 at the Australian Grand Prix, Verstappen acknowledged that positives were few and far between.
Hadjar echoed similar concerns, highlighting that Red Bull need improvements across the board to compete at the front.
“I don’t know what happened yet and why we lost half a second, but happy with my lap,” he said. “It was good, but in the end, it doesn’t change. We need a bit more of everything—more grip, more power, maybe. We were just very far off Mercedes, a lot more than we were last weekend.”
Red Bull will be looking to address these deficiencies ahead of the Sprint race, as Mercedes’ dominance continues to set the benchmark in Shanghai.
Alpine reflects on PU learnings after Australia ahead of China Sprint
Alpine team principal Laurent Mekies admitted there was “much to learn” following the Australian Grand Prix as the team prepared for the Chinese GP Sprint Qualifying in Shanghai.
“Seriously, many, many learnings,” Mekies said when asked what the first race had taught Alpine.
“If we think about the biggest aspects for us, it’s probably the power unit—it’s so new in this adventure. But it’s fair to say the learnings were 360 degrees across the weekend.
“You’ve seen through qualifying sessions how much every driver and car were adapting. In the race, how much we were all learning about dealing with our energy. So, I would say, first the power unit in real-life race trim. Second, probably how we learned to manage energy around the lap throughout the weekend.”
Mekies also acknowledged the gap to rivals had widened since Australia.
“I was expecting the McLaren and the Ferrari to be ahead, but I didn’t expect the gap overall to increase.”
Alpine now heads to Shanghai with lessons learned from Melbourne, aiming to improve both power unit performance and energy management in the Sprint race.