Max Verstappen’s usual confidence was absent in Brazil, replaced by a scowl that could curdle milk. The four-time world champion, accustomed to dominating qualifying sessions, found himself stuck in sixth place after sprint qualifying at Interlagos. Diplomacy was certainly not on his agenda after the session.
“It was just rubbish,” he told Viaplay, summarising his afternoon in three blunt words. His RB21 was apparently auditioning for a rodeo rather than a Grand Prix: it was bouncing and vibrating, and refusing to turn when asked.
“There was no grip in the slow corners. The car wouldn’t turn in and I had no traction,” he groaned. He then radioed in mid-session to say that the car felt “completely broken”.
On a newly resurfaced circuit that promised speed but delivered frustration, neither Red Bull driver found comfort. Yuki Tsunoda was eliminated early in Q1, while Verstappen only just made it into the top ten. The final shootout only added insult to injury: Lando Norris grabbed pole for McLaren, Andrea Kimi Antonelli impressed again in second place, and Oscar Piastri took third place. Meanwhile, Verstappen was left glaring from row three, behind Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.
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Grip gremlins returned
The grip issue wasn’t new. Even in practice, Red Bull’s balance looked as though it had been tuned by committee. The RB21 handled decently on the harder tyres, but became as slippery as a soap bar once fitted with softs.
“It didn’t feel good on the softs,” admitted Verstappen. “Same story in sprint qualifying.”
Red Bull’s technical experts believe the problem lies in the car’s aerodynamics. Translated from Marko-speak, this means: ‘We’ve got no downforce or grip, and we don’t know why.’
Helmut Marko told ORF, the Austrian broadcaster, that “we’re missing downforce, it’s as simple as that. We can’t fix it for the sprint, but hopefully we can gather data for the main race.”
Sector two, the curvy middle section of Interlagos, has become Red Bull’s Bermuda Triangle.
“We’re fine in sectors one and three,” Marko explained, “but in sector two, we’re losing four tenths. It’s just sliding; there’s no grip. It’s better on mediums, but something’s definitely off.”
New surface, same old headache
The freshly laid asphalt has been the talk of the paddock, and not for the right reasons. Drivers have reported unpredictable grip levels and rapid temperature changes.
“There are various factors,” Marko mused. “The better the tyre grips, the worse it gets when you don’t have enough downforce.”
In other words, Red Bull’s usually reliable car is handling like a shopping trolley on ice. Marko doesn’t expect miracles in the sprint, unless it rains heavily.
“Unless it rains, there’s not much chance,” he admitted. “But at least we’ll get double the data from Yuki and Max to help us understand what’s wrong.”
The long-run simulations from practice were more encouraging, with Verstappen looking stronger on the hard compound.
“The long runs were better,” said Marko, “But we don’t yet know what tyres we’ll use tomorrow.”
Verstappen himself isn’t relying on luck. “Even in the wet, I don’t think it’ll be much better,” he said flatly. “Something’s missing, it’s just bad.”
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Tsunoda had a tough Friday
Over at the other side of the garage, Yuki Tsunoda’s Friday was equally grim. For the third time in four sprint sessions, he failed to make it past SQ1. A brush with the wall during practice didn’t help either, costing him valuable track time.
“We expected more,” Marko sighed. “But when the car’s harder to drive, the gap to Max just grows.”
As Red Bull faces a long Saturday, their problems are as clear as Verstappen’s fury. A car that won everything last season now looks as though it has lost its magic touch. With grip vanishing and downforce absent, Verstappen summed it up best: “It was just rubbish.”
One might wonder: has the once dominant team finally run out of energy in their late season resurgence for the title, or is this just another blip before the inevitable redemption on Sunday? As always in Formula 1, only time will tell.
MORE F1 NEWS – Leclerc SLAMS his Ferrari team “not good enough”
Charles Leclerc claimed his seventh podium for Ferrari this season last time out in Mexico, but his second place may have been saved by a late Virtual Safety Car. Max Verstappen on an alternative tyre strategy had closed a twelve second gap after his pit stop to the Ferrari driver and was battling with Leclerc as Carlos Sainz car came to a halt in the stadium section.
Ferrari are in a tight battle for second place in the constructor’s championship, just a point ahead of Mercedes and ten ahead of Max Verstappen and Red Bull. With Lewis Hamilton scoring just 146 points this year, Leclerc’s 210 have not been enough to see of their main two rivals.
Yet Leclerc is dismissive of the importance of finishing second or lower, given the massive points differential to McLaren who won the team trophy with six race weekends remaining.
Ferrari “not good enough”
“It’s not good enough, no,” said the Monegasque driver. “I think when you drive for such a team, the only thing that is good enough is to win. But it’s also true to say that we are against a very, very strong competition and also teams that have a lot of history in the sport and that are very special in their own way. So, it’s not easy.
“But I think, as Ferrari, when you work for such an incredible brand, it’s not good enough and you’ve got to target winning.”
Hopes were high for Ferrari coming into 2025 given across the final six races they had closed a 74 point gap to the leaders to just fourteen come the curtain falling in Abu Dhabi. Yet a strange decision to build an “all new car,” as team boss Fred Vasseur described the SF-25, in the final year of this set of technical regulations has the the team nowhere again in terms of a title fight.
Ferrari have now surpassed their previous longest drought without a constructors’ title which was sixteen long seasons between 1984-1999. It was 2008 when the championship last went to the Maranello based team, with drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Brazilian Felipe Massa…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
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