Formula 1, Sportrik Media - Max Verstappen received an apology from Red Bull Racing team principal Laurent Mekies following a difficult Sprint Qualifying session at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai.
The four-time world champion described the session as “a disaster” after qualifying only eighth at the Shanghai International Circuit. Verstappen finished approximately 1.7 seconds behind pole-sitter George Russell, whose lap secured the front position for Mercedes.
Throughout the session, Verstappen reported major issues with the RB22, particularly a lack of grip and balance that significantly affected performance through the corners. The Dutch driver explained that these problems caused the car to lose substantial time compared to its main rivals.
At the end of the session, while Verstappen was completing his in-lap, Mekies addressed the driver over team radio to acknowledge the team’s struggles and apologise for the result.
“Sorry Max. Tough one. A lot to learn. Thankfully, the weekend is still long. We need to learn from it, so let's try again,” Mekies said.
Speaking later to Viaplay, Mekies elaborated on the difficulties Red Bull experienced during the session, noting that the team had struggled to operate the car within its optimal performance window from the very first laps in Shanghai.
“It’s been very difficult here from the very first laps,” Mekies explained.
“We couldn’t get the car to work in its proper windows, and on top of that we have been slowed down by quite a few issues, a lot of small issues which, added together, have taken us away from the performance we were hoping to have.”
Mekies also acknowledged that the performance gap to rivals had grown significantly compared with the season-opening race in Melbourne only days earlier.
“In terms of the gap to the competition, there is a big increase compared to only a few days ago in Melbourne.”
“So it’s something for us to understand what we are missing, how we can put things a bit more together and get more out of our package.”
With the Sprint race and the main qualifying session still to come during the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull now faces the challenge of analysing the data and attempting to recover performance against rivals including Ferrari and McLaren.
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