Red Bull stunned – admits São Paulo set-up gamble backfired

Red Bull’s high-risk approach to the São Paulo Grand Prix qualifying ended in dramatic fashion on Saturday, leaving Max Verstappen staring up from 16th on Sunday’s grid and confronting a serious challenge in his championship bid.

Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda struggled to 19th, or deal last after Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto was unable to take part in the grid defining session following his massive Sprint race crash.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies conceded that the team had taken a “bold” gamble on their set-up to try to rescue performance after a tricky weekend.

"Obviously, nobody expected something like that," Mekies said.

"We have been unhappy with the car since pretty much when we got here, and you heard our struggles through the practice session and sprint but nonetheless, we were at the point where we could not fight for the win but we could fight with the group just after.

"And it's fair to say that we took some more risk before qualifying to try to see if we could put the car in a better place and it obviously went the opposite direction.

A Costly Misstep

“So, that's where we are now,” added Mekies. “It's sometimes the price you pay when you take a risk, you cannot always go your way. It's painful but it's something we can learn from and improve.”

The Red Bull chief emphasised the deliberate nature of the gamble.

"We did take some risks, we did change significantly the car because again that's the sort of risk you need to take if you want to give yourself a chance to put the car back in a window where it could fight for something bigger than where we were this morning,” he explained.

"As we said it went the opposite direction so now we are where we are but no, I would not say it was frightening. It's bold changes, we have been bold in our approach for a long time, that's the way we go racing and sometimes it hurts.”

Verstappen Left in Shock

For Verstappen, the outcome was both unexpected and frustrating. He struggled to get any meaningful performance from the RB21 and could only describe the session as a disaster. For the record, it was also the vert first time in his F1 career that the Dutchman failed to exit Q1 on pace.

“It was just bad. I couldn’t push at all,” Verstappen said. “The car was all over the place, sliding around a lot. I had to under-drive it a lot just to not have a moment. That of course doesn’t work in qualifying.

“We first have to analyse what is going on. I don’t really understand how it can be this bad, so that’s more important for us to understand at the moment.”

The Dutchman’s inability to find grip or balance highlights the severity of Red Bull’s Saturday struggles, turning a championship weekend into a recovery mission.

Verstappen now faces an uphill battle from deep in the grid, while Mekies’ team scrambles to understand what went wrong before Sunday’s Grand Prix.

As for Verstappen's hopes of claiming a fifth consecutive world championship, the 28-year-old admitted to a painful reality.

“I can forget about [the championship]. Yes, for sure,” he said. “With this kind of performances, I mean, forget about it. But it’s important to get answers on why the car is… For sure, yeah.”

Red Bull’s bold qualifying gamble at Interlagos may have been intended to give him an edge, but instead it has exposed vulnerabilities in the car – and left their four-time world champion looking for answers once again in “no man’s land.”

Read also: Verstappen left stranded in ‘no man’s land’ in São Paulo Sprint

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