Max Verstappen suffered a surprise Q2 exit at the 2026 Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix after struggling to tame an “undriveable” RB22.
Verstappen’s plight with the latest-spec F1 cars continued at the Suzuka International Circuit, on Saturday.
The four-time World Champion was knocked out of the second part of qualifying after getting displaced from P10 by sister team Racing Bulls’ rookie Arvid Lindblad.
This also marked the second time in three race weekends that Verstappen has been out-qualified by a teammate – a rare sight given the history of Red Bull’s troubled second seat.
“The car never turns mid-corner,” he told Sky Sports F1 after the session.
“At the same time, this weekend again, just oversteer a lot on entry. It’s really difficult. Unpredictable.”
Max Verstappen slams ‘undriveable’ RB22 high-speed balance
Verstappen slammed the RB22 for its balance on his team radio. He pointed out how the car was “undriveable” in high-speed corners.
In fact, a look at Verstappen’s onboard for his final flying effort of Q2 confirms this thesis.
The Red Bull driver struggled with bouts of understeer followed by snap oversteer throughout the esses as well as in and out of Spoon Curve – losing a large chunk of lap time in the run up to 130R.
“We thought we’d fixed it a little bit in FP3, I mean, there’s still a lot of understeer in the car,” Verstappen continued.
“Now, in qualifying again, for me, it was undriveable. That’s something we need to look at. Also, I’m driving with a different aero package this weekend, yet it seems like that’s not working, so that’s also not very good.
“We have problems I cannot explain in detail here that we know are there, sometimes a bit worse than other times.
“In qualifying, it just came back to a point where it was undriveable.”
Verstappen is known for his stellar drives through the field. Will he be able to mount another comeback in Japan, on Sunday? Only time will tell.
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