Max Verstappen victim of 'years long' problem Red Bull engine has made worse

Red Bull's new in-house F1 engine has made Max Verstappen's gripes with gearshifts in his car 'worse', believes Bernie Collins.

Verstappen has endured a tricky weekend at the Chinese GP, qualifying for the main race in eighth place, behind Alpine's Pierre Gasly, after branding his RB22 as "uncontrollable" during the Sprint, in which he finished ninth, not scoring any points.

The four-time world champion also dropped to P20 off the line in the Sprint as a major set-up change ahead of qualifying failed to yield improvements, as he complained of gearshift issues throughout the weekend. 

This has been a common complaint for Verstappen in recent times, as former strategist turned pundit Collins explained her belief that the RBPT-Ford engine had made the issue worse.

"Verstappen in that Red Bull has been complaining about gear shifts for a number of years now," Collins told Sky Sports F1.

"All through last year, we heard him complain about downshifts and upshifts, and it was unbalancing the car.

"So it is not new to this engine; it is worse with this engine, and I think it has a worse effect on the balance of the car, but it is not necessarily a new problem with the gearbox."

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Elsewhere, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve added that Verstappen is not currently able to 'drive' the car as he wants, which is compounding his issues with the set-up.

"The car is unpredictable, even last year when the car was slow, there was some sort of balance," Villeneuve told Sky Sports F1. 

"He could drive the car; he was not reacting to the car, it was reacting to him, which means you can feel the car and set it up.

"You can find a tenth or two here, push hard, and it will react, and it means the team knows how to develop it. 

"When it is like this, we see him having the rear kick around. It doesn't mean that he has oversteer; it could still be an understeer-y car, but at some point, the rear kicks around.

"It never does the same thing, and he ends up being a driver who reacts to the car, and when that happens, you can't set it up and lose a tenth here or there."