Max Verstappen at loggerheads with Red Bull over car and radio silence | F1 | Sport

Max Verstappen is adamant that his Red Bull team are going down the wrong road when it comes to setting up their temperamental Formula 1 cars. The Dutchman qualified sixth for the Canadian Grand Prix but spent the entire session complaining about his RB22 and how difficult it was to drive, worried particularly about a lack of grip.

Verstappen said afterwards that he was “confused” about why he could not get his car to work the way that he wanted it to. The situation was made even more strange by the fact his team-mate Isack Hadjar, who qualified one place behind, felt the car was in a good place but blamed himself for not qualifying higher up the grid.

As far as Verstappen is concerned, the problem is the setup direction which his Red Bull team continues to chase, despite his insistence that they are wrong. “I’ve tried this many times before, but it never works. They are convinced that this direction does work, but the opposite is clearly true,” he told reporters after qualifying in Montreal.

The Dutchman was also somewhat bemused by how little feedback he was receiving from the team during qualifying, as he relayed the problems he was experiencing. He explained: “You just go in circles, like you improve the bumps and the kerbs, but then you just lose downforce, so that was an issue in qualifying.

“Plus, it was very confusing with the straight line speed; it was just not working for me, and then suddenly on the final lap [in Q3], I have no idea where that came from, so it is a bit confusing. Every lap I did, I went slower on the straights, I was gaining lap time in the corners and then on the straights I was losing more than I was gaining.

“I asked a few times [for feedback from the team], but I heard nothing. I got nothing back, no feedback, so I just drove laps, but it wasn’t too good… So they must not know themselves, I have no idea, it’s all a bit weird.”

So exasperated is Verstappen with this new generation of F1 cars, from which he gets no joy while behind the wheel, that he renewed his threat to quit the sport if significant changes for the 2027 season are not agree. He told media in Montreal: “If it stays like this, it’s going to be a long year next year, which I don’t want. It’s just mentally not doable for me to stay like this, it’s really not.

“Let’s stay on the positive side: We’re still, I think, looking towards making those changes. Of course, some people at the moment that maybe have a bit of an advantage will try to be difficult about it, but if the FIA is strong and also from the FOM [Formula One Management] side, they just need to do it.”