Red Bull Forced to Apologise to Max Verstappen Over Huge Qualifying Deficit at China

Red Bull has genuinely apologized to Max Verstappen following their mediocre outing during the Chinese GP Sprint Qualifying.

Red Bull Forced to Apologise to Max Verstappen Over Huge Qualifying Deficit at China

Laurent Mekies and Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)

In Short
  • Red Bull has apologized to Max Verstappen for the significant performance gap at the Chinese GP.
  • Verstappen started the sprint race in P8, expressing dissatisfaction with the car's grip and overall performance.
  • Laurent Mekies acknowledged ongoing issues with the RB22 and noted an increased pace gap to rivals like Mercedes.

Red Bull has failed to develop a dominant challenger for the early stages of the 2026 season. Max Verstappen suffered from a disappointing shunt during the season opener Australian GP, and started the race from P20. Despite finishing in P6, the car’s pace remained mediocre. Now, the Chinese GP is off to a rough start as Verstappen manages to achieve a P8 start for the sprint race.

Max Verstappen was aware that Red Bull’s running at the beginning of the 2026 season would be far from satisfactory. However, the Dutchman isn’t delighted with the lack of grip, among other issues, in the RB22 challenger. Now, after a P8 start in the sprint race, the team has apologized to their star driver for the massive deficit to the rivals.

Throughout the Sprint Qualifying session, Max Verstappen was spotted being critical about the challenger on the team radio. Following the culmination of the session, Laurent Mekies did not hesitate to apologize to Verstappen. The Frenchman accepts that there is a lot to learn about the car, but the entire weekend is still remaining, and he is looking forward to learn from the mistakes so far.

Sorry Max. Tough one. A lot to learn. Thankfully, the weekend is still long. We need to learn from it, so let’s try again.

Laurent Mekies said, as reported by RacingNews365.

Laurent Mekies accepted that the initial few laps were extremely difficult for Max Verstappen and Co. He added that Red Bull was unable to get the RB22 challenger in perfect working condition and that many other issues further deteriorated the car’s performance. Regardless, Mekies reiterated that the entire weekend was still pending, and Max Verstappen will still maximize performance from the car.

It’s been very difficult here from the very first laps. We couldn’t get the car to work in its proper windows, and on top of that, we have been slowed down by quite a few issues, a lot of small issues which, added together, have taken us away from the performance we were hoping to have. The weekend is still long, but certainly a lot of work to do.

Laurent Mekies added.

Laurent Mekies reveals ‘big increase’ in pace gap to the rivals at forefront

Mercedes was the team to defeat at the Australian GP following their dominant showing on Sunday. The German carmaker achieved a one-two finish and maximized results against its rivals. Now, Laurent Mekies has shockingly revealed that the pace gap to the forefront has increased instead of closing up on the rivals despite Max Verstappen’s consistent efforts.

Laurent Mekies and Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)
Laurent Mekies and Max Verstappen (via Red Bull)

Laurent Mekies made a “time will tell” remark on whether Red Bull’s performance issues would be solved over the Chinese GP. He pointed out that the gap to the competition witnessed a big increase, more so as George Russell once again achieved a pole position start to the Sprint race. As such, Mekies accepted that it was now up to Max Verstappen and Red Bull to figure out where the deficit was being created against Mercedes.

Time will tell. In terms of the gap to the competition, there is a big increase compared to only a few days ago in Melbourne. So it’s something for us to understand what we are missing, how we can put things a bit more together and get more out of our package?

Laurent Mekies noted.

The 2026 season has been interesting so far, and racing action has remained exciting. The Silver Arrows put forth a close battle to achieve the race victory. Now, all eyes are set on the Chinese GP as the rivals aim to close down the deficit to the leaders in Mercedes.

Read More: Max Verstappen Exposes Key ‘Red Bull Car Issue’ Ahead of Chinese GP