Red Bull team principal Laurent Mequise has apologized to Max Verstappen after he called their pace a “disaster” during sprint qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Izak Hajar only made it to SQ3 on Friday, finishing eighth and 10th in Saturday’s sprint qualifying at 3am UK time, which was broadcast live on Sky Sports F1.
More worryingly, on a track that tests the all-round ability of an F1 car, Verstappen was 1.734 seconds behind sprint pole sitter George Russell, who led teammate Kimi Antonelli in a Mercedes one-two.
“I’m sorry, Max. It’s been difficult and I have a lot to learn,” Mekies told Verstappen over the radio.
“The weekend is still long. We need to learn from (today). Let’s try again.”
Verstappen later told Sky Sports F1’s Rachel Brooks: “Pace-wise it was terrible all day. There’s no grip. That’s the biggest problem – no grip, no balance.”
“You just lose a lot of time in the corners. That starts to cause other little problems, but the big problem for us is that the cornering is completely out.”
Hajar had a battery deployment issue on his only SQ3 lap, which limited his straight-line speed on the long back straight, so he qualified in 10th place, 2.203 seconds behind qualifying, but the gap was a bit of a surprise.
“I was happy with my lap. It was good, but at the end of the day it’s still the same weekend. I’m glad I wasn’t too far from the max,” he said.
“We need a little more grip, power, everything. We’re just a lot further away from Mercedes than we were last weekend.
“We expected Ferrari and McLaren to lead, but the overall gap never widened.”
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Max Verstappen complained about Red Bull’s grip after a ‘disaster’ day of Chinese GP sprint qualifying
Hamilton: Ferrari must push to close power gap with Mercedes
Red Bull’s pace in Shanghai on Friday suggested they had dropped out of the front pack of Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. However, in the sprint qualifying for Mercedes, Russell opened up a 6-tenth gap over Lando Norris in third place, becoming the first non-Mercedes driver to widen his lead over other competitors.
Lewis Hamilton, who won last year’s Chinese Grand Prix Sprint, qualified fourth on Friday, 0.641 seconds behind Russell, but Ferrari believes it is far behind Mercedes in the straights.
“We have a lot of work to do. We have to push really hard back at Maranello to improve our power,” he said.
“Last year we were conscious that we thought Mercedes would start faster than us and the other teams. That was the case last time (2014). They did a great job and we have to push to close the gap.”
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Lewis Hamilton says Ferrari needs to ‘improve power’ to catch up with Mercedes
“The car feels great and I think we can compete with them in the corners, but it’s like that when you’re down on power.”
Ferrari ran an innovative inverted rear wing during the only practice session in Shanghai to increase straight-line speed.
However, it was removed before sprint qualifying due to concerns that the wing would not be completely reliable for the rest of the weekend.
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Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz and Bernie Collins take a closer look at Ferrari’s much talked about rear wing design
Hamilton said: “I don’t really know why they put it back in. They put it here in a hurry and it shouldn’t have been in the car until Race 4 or 5 or something like that.”
“They did a great job getting here quickly and we only had two cars. Maybe it was a little premature, so we took it out. The car was still great and we’ll try to get it back when it’s ready.”
Norris sees ‘opportunity’ to start sprint
If Hamilton can repeat Charles Leclerc’s incredible start from fourth place at last Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, he could be in the lead after the first corner of the sprint.
However, Norris, who is third, also believes he has a chance to jump over the two Mercedes cars and gain track position on the descent into Turn 1.
“To be honest, I don’t expect them to get off to a bad start. It’s definitely an opportunity,” he said.
“I think they know what went wrong in Melbourne last weekend and they’ll probably be OK. But you never know. It’s a good chance. The easiest place to overtake is off the line, so we’ll see what we can do.”
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McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri talk about sprint qualifying for the Chinese GP sprint
Sprint pole sitter Russell believes tire graining will be an issue, but is optimistic about Mercedes’ start as it is being worked on at the factory.
“You never know what’s going to happen. We had a much better start to practice this morning. One of our best this season. We’re improving a lot in that regard,” he said.
“Ever since Melbourne I’ve been focusing all my efforts on how I can improve my starts. Thankfully the two guys around me have two Mercedes engines, so I’m hoping the fast-starting Ferraris can catch up.”
Sky Sports F1 China GP Schedule
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A look back at some of the most dramatic moments that took place around the Shanghai International Circuit.
Saturday, March 14th
2:25am: Chinese GP sprint build-up*
3am: Chinese GP Sprint*
4.30am: Ted’s Sprint Notes*
5:30am: F1 Academy Race 1*
6:30am: Chinese GP qualifying build-up*
7am: Chinese GP Qualifying*
9am: Ted’s Qualification Notebook*
Sunday March 15th
2:35am: F1 Academy Race 2*
5:30am: Preparation for Chinese Grand Prix: Grand Prix Sunday*
7am: Chinese Grand Prix*
9am: Chinese GP reaction: Checkered flag*
10am: Ted’s Notes*
*Also held at Sky Sports Main Event
F1 will host the first sprint weekend of the 2026 season in Shanghai with the Chinese Grand Prix, which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports now – cancel anytime with no contract
