Max Verstappen failed to make the top ten shootout in Saturday’s qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix in a session that exposed the deep issues impacting Red Bull’s troubled RB22.
It was not just the result that stunned the paddock, especially as his teammate Isack Hadjar made the cut, but the manner of it. Verstappen never appeared comfortable, his car twitching unpredictably through Suzuka’s flowing high-speed sections.
By the time the chequered flag fell in Q2, he had been edged out of the top ten by rookie Arvid Lindblad – a moment that underlined just how far off balance things have become.
'Unpredictable and undriveable'
Verstappen did not hold back when describing his experience.
“The car never turns mid-corner,” he said. “At the same time, this weekend again, just oversteer a lot on entry. It’s really difficult. Unpredictable.”
Those words painted a bleak picture of a machine refusing to cooperate. Through Suzuka’s demanding esses and the long arc of Spoon Curve, the RB22 oscillated between stubborn understeer and sudden snaps of oversteer, robbing Verstappen of confidence and crucial lap time.
Even attempts to improve the situation seemed to fall flat.
“We thought we’d fixed it a little bit in FP3, I mean, there’s still a lot of understeer in the car,” the Dutchman continued.
“Now, in qualifying again, for me, it was undriveable. That’s something we need to look at. Also, I’m driving with a different aero package this weekend, yet it seems like that’s not working, so that’s also not very good.”
Deeper issues emerging
Beyond the immediate frustration, Verstappen hinted at more fundamental concerns within the team.
“We have problems I cannot explain in detail here that we know are there, sometimes a bit worse than other times,” he admitted.
“In qualifying, it just came back to a point where it was undriveable.”
For a driver renowned for extracting performance in even the most difficult conditions, the admission carried weight. This was not a case of fine margins or minor setup tweaks – it was a car operating outside the window of control.
A long road ahead
This marks the second time in three race weekends that Verstappen has been out-qualified by Hadjar -an unfamiliar scenario in a team long defined by his dominance. More troubling, however, is the sense that the issues are not easily solved.
Sunday now presents a different kind of challenge. Verstappen has built a reputation on charging through the field, turning adversity into opportunity. But at a circuit as unforgiving as Suzuka, and with a car he clearly does not trust, even that task feels steep.
For now, the four-time world champion finds himself in unfamiliar territory: searching not just for pace, but for answers.
Japanese Grand Prix - Qualifying Results
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