Max Verstappen struggled to defend Red Bull’s Formula 1 British Grand Prix performance so far, admitting that its car has a “clear problem” in terms of pace compared to its rivals.
The Milton Keynes-based squad and the Dutchman must feel that last year’s pole position at Silverstone was a century ago, having laboured to seventh place in qualifying.
Verstappen’s time was nearly eight tenths off a second of Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s pole position time, six tenths off Charles Leclerc’s P2 time, and four tenths off Lewis Hamilton’s third place effort.
Things weren’t much better in the Sprint earlier in the day, losing on-track battles with George Russell and Charles Leclerc to finish sixth, having qualified third.
Despite Red Bull’s in-house, Ford-collaborated powertrain being of sufficient enough power to not qualify for ADUO status, the RB22 is clearly suffering on Silverstone’s power profile.
And after qualifying, Verstappen revealed that no matter what tweaks have been made to the car over the weekend, the team has reached a dead end on solutions.
“I’ve tried a lot of different things through qualifying, but it was just always the same,” he told media, including Motorsport Week. “So, there is a clear problem, and that’s something that also worries me for tomorrow, because there is actually no point to race like this.”
Max Verstappen reveals Red Bull attempts to improve ‘didn’t make any improvements’
Verstappen laboured the point further, explaining how the Silverstone circuit’s profile of high-speed straights are exposing the Red Bull issue further.
“The car yesterday was already not great. I think today, we didn’t really seem to make any improvement on that side, so it was pretty much the same,” he continued.
“But at the same time, [we were] also very slow on the straights for whatever reason on my side of the garage, from the first lap, just down on power.
“And of course, around here, when you are down on power, you spend more time on the straights, so you burn your battery more. And that has an even bigger effect in the last sector where basically, out of [Turn] 15, there is no power.”
Verstappen will need a miracle to score a decent result this weekend, sparking a bigger comedown than usual, given his impressive and strong outing in Austria.
With ongoing speculation about his future at the team, there will be some nervous dispositions as it strives to improve the car for the Belgian Grand Prix in two weeks time.
READ MORE – F1 2026 British Grand Prix – Qualifying Results
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