Max Verstappen criticizes ‘undriveable’ Red Bull vehicle, stating he has ‘never experienced anything this poor’
SHANGHAI, China — Max Verstappen expressed dissatisfaction, stating that Red Bull “never had anything this bad” after struggling to secure eighth place on the grid for the sprint race in China.
Verstappen has shown increasing frustration this season due to his aversion to F1’s contentious new hybrid engine vehicles.
Red Bull is also considerably lagging behind with their newly developed engine, which seems to be exacerbating his overall discontent.
On Friday, he qualified 1.7 seconds behind George Russell’s sprint pole time, a significant margin in a contemporary qualifying session.
“The car’s undriveable. We never had anything this bad, with everything combined,” Verstappen remarked over the radio later in the session.
The escalating dissatisfaction of Verstappen, widely regarded as the top driver in F1 at present by a considerable margin, should raise concerns for Formula 1.
The four-time world champion acknowledged on Thursday that he feels “conflicted” about his future, having consistently voiced his disapproval of F1’s new hybrid engines, which utilize a 50-50 balance of combustion and electric power.
Speaking ahead of this weekend’s series of races, Verstappen humorously mentioned that he was now preparing for F1 events by playing Mario Kart and gathering red mushrooms and blue shells.
The new engines have significantly emphasized the management and use of battery power throughout a race – during preseason testing, he remarked that the new cars resembled “Formula E on steroids”.
Verstappen’s critiques of the new vehicles date back several years — he was expressing concerns as early as 2023.
Source: espn.com
