Max Verstappen offers insight into latest Red Bull misery

Max Verstappen has provided insight into the issues with his Red Bull that again plagued him during the Chinese Grand Prix.

For the first time since 2018, the four-time F1 champion has scored his fewest amount of points from the opening two grands prix, matching the classification of sixth and retirement in Australia and Bahrain that year.

In China, in particular, Verstappen was heavily compromised at the start of the sprint and grand prix. In the latter, after starting from eighth on the grid, he dropped to 16th early in the lap.

Although Verstappen recovered and was running a solid sixth position, he retired on lap 45 of the 56-lap race in Shanghai with an ERS cooling issue, leaving him eighth in the drivers' standings on eight points, already 43 points adrift of George Russell. 

Explaining his starts this year, speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Verstappen said: "So I had no battery in Melbourne, and here the two problems are the same. I just have no power. As soon as I release the clutch, the engine is not there."

Regarding the race that followed, he added: "The start, of course, was a big problem, the same as yesterday [in the sprint]. The rest of the race was, again, the same as yesterday, just a lot of graining. Can't push, terrible pace, terrible balance. Just a very bad weekend for us."

The performance so far of the RB22 has been in stark contrast to that witnessed in pre-season testing in Bahrain when Red Bull's F1 rivals felt the Milton Keynes-based team was among the frontrunners.

Verstappen, however, knew differently. "You guys don't know. I know. I never saw myself even close to Mercedes or Ferrari, but this weekend has been particularly bad."

Declaring it "impossible to say" where he feels he is in the pecking order, he added, "For me, it's not a surprise that we are not close to Mercedes, Ferrari or McLaren, but this weekend was particularly bad.

"I hope, of course, we can be a little bit more competitive [at the next race in Japan], and I hope that after Japan, we have a few extra weeks to put a bit more performance on the car, but at the same time, others will also put performance

"It's really not where we want to be. I know everyone is trying their best, and within the team, they are as frustrated with it as I am. Of course, we want to be better, and, hopefully, we can be a little bit better in Japan."