Max Verstappen’s Qualifying exit ‘difficult to accept’ as Laurent Mekies concedes Red Bull risk went in the ‘opposite direction’

Red Bull Team Principal Laurent Mekies admitted that the changes made to Max Verstappen’s car between an underwhelming Sprint performance and Qualifying in Sao Paulo “went in the opposite direction” and contributed to his early Q1 exit.

The Dutchman has succeeded in gradually narrowing the deficit to the McLaren pair in the drivers’ standings across recent rounds. With a gap of 36 points at the beginning of the weekend, there was undoubtedly potential for him to hunt down his fifth championship with another strong showing.

However, his ambitions were dealt a heavy blow in Qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix with Red Bull’s post-Sprint adjustments seemingly leading to an uncontrollable lack of grip.

He reported over the radio in Q1 that he had “no grip – zero”, which was a concern that several drivers had expressed throughout the day due to the tricky weather conditions.

However, Verstappen’s experience with the slippery surface was reflected dramatically in his performance as he wound up in P16, with his team mate Yuki Tsunoda also knocked out in P19.

“Today has not been a positive day for the Team, but one we will try and learn from,” Mekies summarised afterwards. “The Sprint was tough and we did not have the pace to fight for the win.

“We were not happy with where we were after the Sprint, so we decided to make a number of changes. It is part of the risk taking we felt was necessary to see if we could get more out of the car.

“It didn’t work and if anything, it went in the opposite direction and clearly, we lost a lot of competitiveness. It is painful and difficult to accept but it is what happens when you take risks sometimes and the best we can do is to learn from it and see where we can improve the car from here.”

While teams like McLaren and Mercedes have managed the unique challenges of the old-school track well, Red Bull have not been able to find momentum, leaving Verstappen with an uphill fight to return to the points.

He famously did so in a similar situation last season in Brazil, recovering from P17 to P1 in a rain-soaked race, but the lack of a downpour in the weather forecast could make a similar recovery even harder.

Mekies added: “It’s fair to say we are missing the right window for the car for this circuit, in these conditions. That is where the effort will go and we will look at the options to see how we can improve the situation. All the team is fully focused to get both cars into a more competitive place for the race tomorrow.”