Max Verstappen reveals damning Red Bull problem: 'It's bothered us for years'

Max Verstappen has revealed a damning problem that has "been bothering" Red Bull "for years" following qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix.

Verstappen once again found himself wrestling with a jumpy RB22, which continued to suffer from bouncing-related issues.

The four-time world champion had to settle for sixth but has since been promoted to fifth on the grid, at least offering an outside chance of a Monza podium push.

However, not for the first time, Verstappen complained throughout the day about various issues with his car, something he opened up about after qualifying.

The Dutchman explained how Red Bull has "some components" that "break or seize up", something that cannot be fixed if it happens after parc fermé comes into effect.

"We have some components on the car that break or seize up," Verstappen told select media, including RacingNews365. "I’ve had that feeling quite often this season. 

"Sometimes it happens in practice, and then you can fix it the next day. And sometimes it happens during the race, which is what happened to me in Austria. It happens fairly often, but especially in Austria.

"This time, it happened between the third free practice session and qualifying. Then the car doesn’t handle the bumps and kerbs well anymore. It just bounces around a lot more, and we end up losing lap time."

Verstappen suffering 'for years'

The Red Bull driver was quizzed on the revelation that the same fault has been hurting the Milton Keynes-based outfit for years, confirming that it is found at the rear of the car.

He failed to detail the exact component but did reveal that Red Bull has been unable to fix it despite trying for years.

Asked if the issue is caused by high kerbs, Verstappen responded: "The component itself isn’t good enough." 

Pushed on if the part in question is at the rear of the car, the 28-year-old said: "Yes. I know where it is, but I’m not the engineer who can fix it.

"I’ve been dealing with this for years," he added. "It’s been bothering us for years. The team is trying to fix it, too, but they haven’t been able to so far. 

"Some weekends, if you drive over the kerbs less, you have fewer hard impacts and it bothers you less. Of course, I didn’t drive a single lap at Zandvoort, so you don’t know how it will go for the rest of the race. It just happens very often."