Team principal Mekies explains: What went wrong in Max Verstappen’s qualifying session

What happened to Max Verstappen? The Red Bull Racing driver had set the fastest time in the final practice session on Friday morning. In both of Thursday’s practice sessions, he had been the closest challenger to Mercedes. But in qualifying – when it really mattered – all that magic suddenly seemed to have vanished. After the session, Verstappen was completely baffled.

His team principal, Laurent Mekies, told our colleagues at Sky: “We had quite a big problem with the car. We were significantly slower on the straights than we’d expected. Not only did that virtually ruin Max’s qualifying, but it’s now also very important that we find out what went wrong with the car, what affected his speed on the straights.”

The French engineer added: “There are a number of knock-on effects when you don’t have that speed: you run into a lot of problems with energy management – that’s basically what happened today. We now need to identify the cause and ensure we can fix the problem by tomorrow.”

Mekies speaks of a ‘major problem’

Mekies: “It’s a major problem because it’s basically robbed Max of any chance of fighting for pole, and he’s been so quick this weekend so far that it’s very frustrating. As always, though, I’m fairly confident that we’ll find the root cause and make the necessary changes so we can be competitive tomorrow.”

Mekies also had high praise for his protégé Isack Hadjar, who – after a three-race injury break – is competing in his first race weekend in almost two months in Baku and secured fourth on the grid: “The most important thing is that Isack is in good form in the car, the pain has gone, the injury is behind us and he’s virtually 100 per cent fit. He made good use of yesterday to find his rhythm again and put in a solid qualifying performance today – huge credit to him.”

Topic of the week

Spanish Grand Prix at the new Madring: track – hit or miss?

The people of Madrid had set their sights high for their city’s first Formula 1 World Championship race since 1981. But have the high expectations for the new Madring mixed-circuit track really been met?

Mathias Brunner

Read More

TV Program

Tomorrow

Baku: Das Rennen

FIA Formula One World Championship

26.09.2026 - 11:00