Disaster! The major problems revealed facing Max Verstappen and Red Bull

After the Australian Grand Prix, optimism prevailed at Red Bull. Okay, the weekend was not as smooth as Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar would have liked, but you sensed there was great potential.

After crashing in qualifying, Verstappen rose from 20th on the grid at Melbourne's Albert Park to sixth by the chequered flag, even challenging F1 champion Lando Norris late on. Only Mercedes and Ferrari were faster than Red Bull, racing with its own power unit for the first time.

Six days later, and the world looks completely different. Verstappen struggled to get up to speed in China and worked through a dispiriting sprint qualifying session.

The 28-year-old Dutchman had to make do with a lowly eighth position, a seismic 1.7 seconds behind pole-sitter George Russell in his Mercedes. Even Alpine driver Pierre Gasly was ahead of the four-time F1 champion in his RB22.

It sparked obvious dejection from Verstappen, who described the performance of his car as "a disaster", leaving him and his team desperately searching for answers overnight to at least aid their cause going into grand prix qualifying on Saturday.

Throughout Friday, Verstappen found no grip anywhere and was particularly troubled by graining and excessive tyre wear. In free practice, his left front tyre was completely gone after a few laps.

Major headache for Red Bull

Additionally, the balance problems appeared far-reaching, exacerbated, in particular, on a circuit as demanding as the Shanghai International.

Whilst the team was expecting to be at a disadvantage with its new engine, it was the RB22's handling which proved to be a major headache, leaving the team's engineers now quickly needing to find solutions, otherwise, competing over a race distance will be a nightmare for Verstappen and Hadjar.

An issue with the power unit also emerged, seemingly stemming from the balance and the extent to which Red Bull can recover energy in the corners. On the other hand, Mercedes, in particular, has cleverly optimised the management of its battery.

On-board footage showed Kimi Antonelli managing the superclipping. Although his speed dropped on the long back straight, his pace was still higher than that of his rivals. Verstappen and Red Bull are struggling to maintain efficiency as the battery drains.

It leaves a lot of work for Red Bull. Certain changes toward qualifying and the grand prix will likely help a little, but nowhere near enough to challenge Mercedes.

The expected problems at the beginning of F1's new era do exist. It is now a question of how soon Red Bull can turn the tide.