The reigning World Champion starts the Chinese Grand Prix from fourth place on the grid, having joined in the fight for pole position during Q3 in qualifying.
After capitalising on circumstances to keep McLaren under pressure in Australia last weekend, Verstappen just missed out on top spot in Sprint Qualifying as Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton beat him by just under two-hundredths of a second.
In the 19-lap Sprint race, Verstappen was shuffled back to third place as tyre degradation meant he fell prey to Oscar Piastri’s McLaren before the weekend reset somewhat as the teams were permitted to change setups before the start of qualifying for the Grand Prix itself.
Verstappen was consistently there or thereabouts through qualifying, making it through Q1 with his first flying lap effort as Red Bull gambled on saving a set of tyres for later in the session.
In Q2, Lando Norris started addressing his scruffy weekend by setting the fastest time of the event up to that point, with Verstappen three-and-a-half tenths behind the McLaren man in second.
It was Piastri who nailed Q3 to set a new lap record of 1:30.641 to go 0.082 clear of Mercedes’ George Russell, with Norris in third ahead of Verstappen – the gap between the Dutch driver and pole position was 0.176 seconds.
While not far off on single-lap pace, Verstappen gained some insight into the race pace of the Red Bull during the Sprint and believes that, in order to have any chance of taking the win in the Chinese Grand Prix, he’ll need some misfortune to hit the cars ahead.
“If they all retire in front of me,” he told Sky F1 when asked what he needs to take victory.
Assuming Verstappen was joking, presenter Rachel Brookes said that viewers “know him better than that”, to which the Dutchman doubled down on his stance.
“No, I do. We are not fast enough.
“I think the lap was alright, but just very difficult to get a, let’s say, consistent balance out of it, every lap, every corner, basically.
“So it was tough, but we are working on it. We trying to do better.”
With Red Bull having worked hard on making the RB21 a less sensitive machine by turning away from chasing peak performance and focusing on widening the operating window of their platform, the moves to make the car more compliant has worked – Verstappen has spoken on several occasions about feeling very comfortable behind the wheel.
This has continued in China, he explained, but the outright performance isn’t quite there yet to allow him to challenge for the win on pure pace.
“I feel comfortable, let’s say like that – like confident to attack corners but, sometimes my input is not what I’m getting back from the car, right?” he said.
“Then that makes it quite difficult to nail every corner plus then, in the race also when it’s not doing that, you’re probably degrading your tyres harder than cars around you and that’s not ideal.
“I probably feel in the best shape again, driving-wise, you know, compared to even the years before.
“I feel like I’m going into qualifying and nailing the laps, I’m doing a good job – the race so far, we’re executing everything that we can but, when the base pace is lacking, there’s not much that you can do, right?”
Asked whether he’s finding it frustrating to be pushing so hard, putting in his best possible performances, yet falling short of his expectations, the Dutch driver said, “I just focus on myself, just trying to at least make sure that I can’t be upset with myself in terms of performance. So just trying to maximise everything I can, and try to help the team to improve the car. So that’s what we focus on.
“It’s still not where I want it to be. It’s difficult to put a number on it or a percentage, but it’s clear that it’s still not where we want it to be.”
