What's behind Red Bull's disastrous showing in Shanghai?

F1 Grand Prix, GP China, Shanghai International Ciruit

Red Bull faced one of their most challenging weekends of the 2026 season at the Chinese Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen retiring from the race due to an ERS issue and Isack Hadjar finishing eighth after an eventful afternoon. T

The team struggled from the opening laps, and despite Hadjar securing his first points for Red Bull, the overall result highlighted significant performance and reliability concerns.

Both drivers opted for the soft tyre at the start—the only team on the grid to do so—but the gamble did not pay off. Verstappen once again struggled off the line, losing several positions immediately. Hadjar initially fared slightly better, but his early progress unravelled when he spun while battling Ollie Bearman, flat‑spotting his tyres and forcing a pit stop at the end of the opening lap.

With Hadjar delayed, Verstappen became the lead Red Bull, but his race was compromised further when he pitted just one lap before the Safety Car was deployed. The timing dropped him down the order, and although he fought his way back into the points, his afternoon ended prematurely when the team instructed him to retire the car due to an ERS cooling problem.

Verstappen described the weekend as deeply frustrating. “It's been a very challenging weekend for us overall. We unfortunately had to retire today in the race due to an ERS cooling issue, which is not what we like to see,” he said.

The Dutchman noted that the team’s struggles were not limited to reliability, adding: “We faced the same problems that we had in Melbourne: we had a lot of degradation and were still struggling with the pace and the grip.”

The Dutchman also reflected on his poor start, explaining: “We tried a different procedure to help with the start, had a similar issue and lost quite a few positions at the beginning, ending up at the back of the grid.” Looking ahead, Verstappen stressed the need for rapid improvement.

“There are quite a few things we need to go away and analyse and learn from in order to improve our overall performance of the car. It is not where we want to be and something we will be looking at in detail ahead of Japan.”

Despite the difficulties, he expressed confidence in the team’s ability to recover. “The team are very talented and working on doing everything they can and I have a lot of confidence in them but at the moment we aren’t where we want to be. We do have a bit of time after this race to work on the car so hopefully we can work on improvements.”

Verstappen also congratulated the race winner, saying: “Finally, congratulations to Kimi on his first race win: the first one is very emotional, and it was only a matter of time that he was going to achieve this.”

Hadjar, meanwhile, managed to salvage eighth place after a spirited recovery drive. “It's a shame I wasn’t able to score more points today,” he said. He enjoyed the early battle with Bearman before his spin, explaining: “I had a good start and had decent initial pace in the early laps. I enjoyed the fight with Ollie, it was good to race, but then the rear snapped out so fast and I lost the car.”

Forced to climb back through the field, the Frenchman made several strong overtakes. “I had to then come through the pack, but I got some good overtakes and managed to work my way into the points.

"We got a little lucky with some of the cars ahead, but it's still nice to get my first points with the Team.” He acknowledged the team’s current limitations, adding: “At the moment, we're just lacking pure car performance to be competitive with the teams at the front but we're understanding how to improve the car and its balance with each weekend.”

Team Principal Laurent Mekies echoed the drivers’ concerns, describing the weekend as a difficult but educational one. “The Chinese Grand Prix proved to be a very tough event for us from Friday onwards. Being on the back foot at the start of a Sprint weekend is the worst possible scenario as there is really little time to catch up and get on top of any difficulties.”

He acknowledged that reliability issues were expected given the team’s recent power unit transition. “We knew that just getting onto the grid in Melbourne with our own PU was a major achievement in itself and it would have been naïve not to expect we would encounter reliability issues.

"Today, we had to retire Max because of a coolant fault. However, this was not our only issue as overall, performance wise, our package showed some significant shortcomings.”

Despite the setbacks, Mekies remained optimistic about the team’s development trajectory. “However, we have learned so much over the past few weeks and I expect that we can be more competitive from the next round in Japan in a fortnight’s time.”

He also noted that the upcoming break in the calendar will be valuable. “After that, the unfortunate but inevitable cancellation of the races in April will give all of us a chance to catch our breath and work as hard as always in Milton Keynes.”

Mekies concluded with confidence in the team’s ability to rebound. “We have a great group of talented people on the campus and I have full confidence that we will get through our current limitations thanks to a massive push from everyone, and improve our package rapidly.”