Max Verstappen believes that modifications applied by Red Bull for Qualifying made ‘zero distinction’, with the four-time World Champion set to start out the Chinese Grand Prix from eighth on the grid.
The Dutchman has endured a troublesome begin to the season with the RB22, and his fortunes failed to enhance on Saturday in Shanghai as he completed exterior the factors within the Sprint.
Later in Qualifying, Verstappen was unable to match the tempo set by Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren, qualifying nearly one second behind polesitter Kimi Antonelli on the fourth row.
“It’s the same. We changed the whole car [from the Sprint] and it makes zero difference,” he stated.
“I’ve no steadiness, so you may’t even lap after lap get a little bit of a reference as a result of it is simply in all places and it is extremely troublesome to drive. It’s not good.
“We are where we should be. That’s probably also where we will be racing tomorrow.”
Red Bull staff mate Isack Hadjar was additionally unable to problem the main groups, with the Frenchman set to start out tenth on the grid.
“Honestly, no regrets. I did everything I could, put a good lap in, but I’m just not very happy with the balance and I was just a bit slow compared with the cars around,” he stated.
“It’s not the place we need to be as a staff however we’ll simply struggle and perceive.
“There’s been a lot of work to turn things around compared with yesterday. We are so far away from the lead that we are trying things and it’s still not really working but at least we try and understand.”
