‘Everything felt bad’ - Max Verstappen puzzled by Red Bull F1 car behaviour

Max Verstappen could not explain the problems affecting his Red Bull car during an underwhelming qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Red Bull’s four-time F1 world champion could manage only seventh place after being caught out by yellow flags which ruined his final run of Q3. However, Verstappen had only set a lap good enough for sixth during his opening salvo.

Verstappen described his RB21 as “completely undriveable” during qualifying and regularly complained about a lack of grip as he struggled to secure a competitive starting spot for Sunday’s race at Red Bull’s home venue.

Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda also struggled and was eliminated in the first part of qualifying in 18th.

“I think yesterday already was not good over one lap, the long run wasn’t good and today FP3 was a little bit more positive but still off,” Verstappen told reporters at the Red Bull Ring, where Crash.net are on the ground.

“Then in qualifying basically everything felt bad. Every corner was a struggle, I just didn’t have the balance.

“It was either understeer or oversteer. Even every single lap that I did I had a bit of a different behaviour from the car so that’s not ideal.”

Asked what he expects for Sunday’s grand prix based on the long run data, Verstappen replied: “Not a lot. Not to fight up front for sure.

“For sure the hotter conditions they don’t help as well. So far this year we’ve not been more competitive in the race than qualifying as well. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”

Verstappen also refused to pin the blame for his struggles on Red Bull’s upgrades.

"I don’t want to talk about the upgrades because I think it was not only the upgrades that caused all this,” he added.

“Just suddenly we really took a step back, which is not what you want from FP3 into quali.”

The Dutchman explained that he “didn’t touch the car” between final practice and qualifying and just made “very tiny little changes that shouldn’t influence the car balance”.

“That’s all manageable but suddenly with the higher track temps and more wind, it just fell apart,” he concluded.

Gianpiero Lambiase absence not a factor in woes

Verstappen is without his long-time race engineer Gianpiero ‘GP’ Lambiase for the first time during his Red Bull career this weekend in Austria.

He is instead working with Simon Rennie, who is standing in for Lambiase for the event while the Italian-British engineer steps aside for personal reasons.

But Verstappen was quick to downplay suggestions that Lambiase’s absence had any impact on his qualifying performance.

“I knew that question was coming but I don’t think so. He did a good job so far this weekend,” Verstappen said.

“I know Simon already for a long time. He’s been with the team already for a long time, so it’s not super weird.

“Of course I’m used to GP but Simon is also someone I have worked with a lot over the last years, in the simulator and meetings as well. So it’s nothing crazy.”