Max Verstappen has definitively written off his F1 title chances following a wretched eight hours in São Paulo he will want to forget in a hurry.
Verstappen bemoaned his Red Bull during a sprint race at Interlagos in which he finished fourth after starting sixth, with his punchy radio remarks even leading to a rebuke from race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase such was his frustration.
It then went from bad to worse in qualifying for the grand prix in which the four-time F1 champion will start from a shocking 16th on the grid, his first Q1 exit since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, and his first on pure pace - and the only one previously in his F1 career - since the 2017 Chinese GP, with the other six all power unit-related.
The four-time F1 champion bemoaned a lack of grip with his RB21, and that was evident throughout his various laps.
Reflecting on where the performance of his car had disappeared to after winning three of the previous five grands, and finishing on the podium in the other two, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Verstappen said: "We need to understand what our problems are, first of all.
"It's not been good. We don't really understand why it's going this way. There's just no grip. We changed a few things on the car, and it didn't work, so that's something we need to figure out because nothing really seemed to work, and we just don't understand.
"Something is clearly not working for us, even with the changes in the setup. Normally, you would feel some kind of reaction, but there wasn't. Something is just really off."
Going into qualifying 39 points behind Lando Norris in the title race, after the McLaren driver won the sprint to stretch his lead, Verstappen does not doubt that this is the end of his hopes of a fifth successive drivers' title.
"We can forget about that," insisted Verstappen. "From where we are starting, it's not going to work, and with these kinds of performances, forget about it."
Reminded that he won last year's race in São Paulo from 17th, the Dutchman insisted that it was in "different circumstances" given the wet-weather conditions that dominated that day, and with Sunday's grand prix set to be dry.
Looking ahead to the race, and making clear he would be seeking answers from the team, he said: "There are so many things that we need to get right [on the car], so we'll look overnight again to try something or understand something.
"But something is just not switching on in our car at the moment.
"Definitely something is off, and we don't seem to understand how to fix it at the moment."
Most read
In this article
Join the conversation!