Max Verstappen felt that the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix weekend was “very challenging” for Red Bull.
Since the opening practice session, both Red Bull drivers struggled for pace with over one-second deficit to leaders, Mercedes, whilst Max Verstappen got bogged down at the start of both the sprint and main race.
He however was able to recover to ninth in the sprint behind Haas’ Oliver Bearman, who then comfortably held off the four-time world champion for fifth in the main race until Verstappen retired with an ERS cooling issue.
Verstappen consequently felt that the weekend had proved “very challenging” and a continuation of their difficulties at the season-opener in Melbourne, Australia.
“We faced the same problems that we had in Melbourne: we had a lot of degradation and were still struggling with the pace and the grip.”
He proceeded to explain that he had tried different race start procedures in Shanghai which proved futile but is keen to put the data gathered into practice in Japan from 27-29 March.
“We tried a different procedure to help with the start, had a similar issue and lost quite a few positions at the beginning, ending up at the back of the grid.
“There are quite a few things we need to go away and analyse and learn from in order to improve our overall performance of the car. It is not where we want to be and something we will be looking at in detail ahead of Japan.”
This season though is Red Bull’s first campaign running their own power units in partnership with Ford, and Verstappen iterated belief that they have the quality to turn their season around.
“The Team are very talented and working on doing everything they can and I have a lot of confidence in them but at the moment we aren’t where we want to be. We do have a bit of time after this race to work on the car so hopefully we can work on improvements.”
Isack Hadjar meanwhile enjoyed a positive weekend in terms of top-ten grid positions for both the sprint and main race, although he stuttered to 15th in the sprint race before he recovered from a first-lap spin as he battled Bearman to finish eighth.
The 21-year old Frenchman though was happy with his scrap with Bearman as he complimented the Brit for giving him a good early battle, in a race where he had to make a lot of overtakes to claim his first points as a Red Bull driver following his promotion from Racing Bulls.
“I had a good start and had decent initial pace in the early laps. I enjoyed the fight with Ollie, it was good to race, but then the rear snapped out so fast and I lost the car.
“I had to then come through the pack, but I got some good overtakes and managed to work my way into the points. We got a little lucky with some of the cars ahead, but it’s still nice to get my first points with the Team.”
Hadjar added that Red Bull’s issues lie in the pure performance but iterated that they are making progress each race weekend.
“At the moment, we’re just lacking pure car performance to be competitive with the teams at the front but we’re understanding how to improve the car and its balance with each weekend.”