F1 Chinese Grand Prix: Max Verstappen airs Red Bull frustrations after latest 'disaster'

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, China, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

Chinese Grand Prix

Max Verstappen airs Red Bull frustrations after latest Chinese GP 'disaster'

Red Bull didn't get a single point in the sprint race

Chris Deeley Editor

Experienced sports writer covering F1 and other motorsports since 2023

Saturday 14 March 2026 19:55

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Max Verstappen is not having a good time at the Chinese Grand Prix.

That's the main takeaway from the Dutchman's weekend in Shanghai, with his Red Bull team well over a second off the pace and in his words, everything that can go wrong going wrong.

Saturday's Sprint race saw the four-time world champion get so bogged down off the line that he fell from eighth place to behind an Aston Martin, with his car's chronic lack of pace limiting him to ninth place at the chequered flag and a pointless Sprint finish for the first time in his career.

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Perhaps the only positive to take was that he fared better than team-mate Isack Hadjar, who got thumped by the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli on the first lap and limped home in 15th.

All that, while driving under a new set of regulations which appear to create a racing style diametrically opposed to what Verstappen believes should be encouraged.

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Verstappen: What a disaster!

Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, the four-time world champion admitted: "I have not a lot of words at the moment, to be honest. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. So yeah, the start is, of course, one problem that we have to fix. But after that, the balance is all over the place.

"Probably the highest degradation of everyone out there, which is just uncontrollable, and some other bits on the car that we're not, I would say, well prepared for. So yeah, we just need to get our stuff together."

He seemed a mite less measured when speaking to DAZN, saying frankly: "What a disaster, to be honest.

“From the back, trying to of course stay out of trouble. But we also didn’t have good pace, deg on the tyres, very bad deg on the tyres. We need to analyse why that is, because I was even losing at one point to the midfield cars."

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F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Chinese Grand Prix