Max Verstappen ignored Laurent Mekies’ warning about ‘awful’ Red Bull before 2026 F1 season

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Max Verstappen and Red Bull are having a dismal weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix. But based on Laurent Mekies’ pre-season comments, perhaps the four-time world champion should have seen it coming.

Verstappen has qualified eighth for both races in Shanghai, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly beating him twice. He failed to score a point in the Sprint after fighting back from a disastrous start to finish ninth.

Red Bull were 1.7 seconds off pacesetters Mercedes on Friday and couldn’t get within the one-second barrier in Grand Prix qualifying either, despite extensive setup changes. Rather than targeting the top three teams, they look vulnerable to the upper midfield.

Ouch. How long will Red Bull need to catch Mercedes?

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Max Verstappen says ‘every lap is a fight’ in Red Bull car at Chinese Grand Prix

Speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying, Verstappen said he was in ‘survival’ mode behind the wheel of the RB22. He has made clear that he is not enjoying the driving experience in the 2026 cars, and Red Bull’s struggles will clearly exacerbate the issue.

During Sprint qualifying, Verstappen described the car as ‘undriveable’ on the radio and told engineer Gianpiero Lambiase that he had ‘never had anything this bad’.

Some of the issues appear to be related to the power delivery from Red Bull’s first-ever F1 engine. Anthony Davidson noticed Verstappen dealing with a violent torque spike on Friday.

What’s gone wrong for Red Bull?

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“Incredibly tough to drive,” said Verstappen. “There’s no balance. I cannot lean on the car. Every lap is a fight. It’s just very difficult.

“Every time I did another lap on a tyre set, it felt awful. I honestly think it will be quite tough tomorrow.

“In the past, sometimes we throw it [the car] upside down and it worked. Now, nothing works. It’s just not nice. I cannot push. Every lap is survival for me.”

Laurent Mekies had asked Max Verstappen for patience

Speaking at the season launch in January, team principal Laurent Mekies warned that Red Bull were facing a difficult start to the season as they took on long-established engine suppliers.

Excitement started to build during testing, particularly when Toto Wolff said Red Bull had the fastest car, but Mekies and the team consistently tried to play down expectations.

“We are not naive,” said Mekies. “We know it’s going to come with a fair amount of struggle, a fair amount of headache and sleepless nights, but that’s exactly what we are here for.

The Frenchman added: “Bear with us in the first few months, and I think these initial difficulties will be a good reminder of how much we went through to eventually get on top.”

If Mekies was asking Verstappen to show patience, it seems he has been ignored. In fact, the 28-year-old gave one of the most critical interviews of his entire Red Bull tenure on Saturday.

Verstappen is one of F1’s greatest drivers and is never going to be content with eighth place. But given what he has achieved at Red Bull, perhaps the team could have expected him to air his grievances in private.