Verstappen faces 'hellfire' challenges as Red Bull leads intense F1 battle

Motorsport photo Max Verstappen lamented Red Bull's "undriveable" Formula 1 car as he suggested "every lap is like survival" after qualifying eighth for the Chinese Grand Prix. Verstappen finished ninth in Saturday morning's sprint after a disastrous start dropped him down the order like a brick, and will be eighth on the grid after Red Bull was all at sea with its RB22. The Milton Keynes squad prided itself on its dramatic car set-up turnarounds between practice and qualifying last year, but despite turning the car upside down once more there were no miracles.

Both in the sprint and in grand prix qualifying Verstappen suffered the nightmare of every race car driver - a car that both oversteers and understeers and won't communicate what it will decide to do next. Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing It left Verstappen nine tenths off pole in ninth, with team-mate Isack Hadjar another tenth in arrears. "We changed a lot on the car, and it makes zero difference," Verstappen explained.

"The whole weekend we've been off, the car is completely undriveable. I cannot even put a bit of a reference in. Every lap is like survival.

The balance is really disconnected. " When asked where his issues come from, he replied: "A little bit on the engine, but that's not probably the biggest side. We lose so much with the car at the moment around here.