Max Verstappen’s Monza weekend took another frustrating turn on Saturday as a promising improvement to his Red Bull was undermined by yet another car issue, leaving the reigning champion to wrestle with a machine he said was “jumping around like a kangaroo”.
Verstappen qualified fifth for the Italian Grand Prix, but the result told only part of the story.
After Red Bull appeared to make meaningful progress with the RB22 during FP3, the Dutchman entered the grid-defining session believing the car had finally moved into a more workable window.
Instead, another technical problem surfaced.
Verstappen was heard airing his displeasure over team radio while out on track and even climbed from the cockpit midway through Q1 as his mechanics examined the car. By the time qualifying ended, the four-time world champion was left lamenting another opportunity lost.
Another problem at the worst possible time
Speaking after qualifying, Verstappen made clear that his compromised final Q3 run was hardly his biggest concern.
“I mean, that's the least of my problems,” he said. “As soon as I went out in qualifying, something failed again on the car, so it's just something that we are aware of, and it has been happening more often in the year.
“It's just costing lap time in the low speed, where the car just starts jumping around a lot more than it should do.
“So on the bumps, the curbs, the car is not compliant anymore, because I was actually very happy with the car. We took a big step in FP3, because we took a big step forward from yesterday.
“The car was in a much better window, but when you have no ride control and the car is just jumping around like a kangaroo, then you can't be consistent, and it actually is a bit of a shame to not optimise our performance.”
The timing was particularly galling. Verstappen had missed Friday’s opening practice while rookie Ayumu Iwasa took his place in accordance with the sport’s mandated rookie running requirements, leaving Red Bull already conscious that the lost mileage could compromise its weekend preparations.
After finally finding a better balance in FP3, the team appeared to have given Verstappen something he could work with. Qualifying, however, promptly took that progress away.
Verstappen demands a clean Sunday
The bigger concern now is whether Red Bull can solve the issue before the race. Verstappen knows that whatever is going wrong cannot simply be tolerated over 53 laps around Monza.
For a driver accustomed to extracting the maximum from difficult machinery, Verstappen’s message was blunt – he wants reliability and consistency, not another compromise.
“We need to be able to change whatever the part is because otherwise, it's going to be quite tough to race like that,” he admitted.
“I would just want to have a car that is in a 100% state. That would be nice, because we have too many weekends where things just go wrong.
“Just stuff either breaks or we're not operating at 100%. I was very happy with FP3. I think the team did a great job in terms of finding a much better balance on the car, finally, but then we couldn't translate that to quali.”
Fifth place at Monza therefore feels less like the end of a difficult Saturday than another reminder of what Verstappen believes Red Bull is leaving on the table.
The pace may be almost there, but if the RB22 continues to misbehave underneath him, even the four-time world champion’s considerable ability may not be enough to turn potential into performance.
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