Max Verstappen feels Red Bull’s RB21 is not responding the way he🃏 wants it to, as he admitted that he was just “not fast enough🉐” to fight for pole position in the Chinese Grand Prix.

With McLaren stealing a march on its rivals at the start of the season, Red Bull has been forced to play catchౠ-up to its Woking-based rival.

Although the energy drinks giant improved the performance window of its troubled F1 car over the winter, the RB21 continues to face some of the b🔯alance issues that blighted its predecessor during Verstappen’s title-winning campaign in 2024.

The four-time F1 champion explained that the car's behaviour is affecting his speed in both short and long runs🌺, after qualifying fourth at the Shanꦛghai International Circuit on Saturday.

“We are not fast enough,” he conceded. “I think the lap was alright, it was just very difficult to get a🌌 consistent balance out of it every lap, every corner.

“It was tough. But we are working 💝on it. We a🦩re trying to do better.

He added: “I feel comfortable [and] confident with tight corners, but whenever my input is not 🎃what I'🌟m getting back from the car, that makes it quite difficult to nail every corner.

“Plus, then in the race when it's not doing that y🐠ou are probably degradin🃏g your tyres harder than the cars around you and that's not ideal.”

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Verstappen said h🌠e is satisfied with how he is extracting the maximum out of the RB21 in both qualifying and race t🍸rim, even though he is not happy with the outright potential of the car.

“I probably f💫eel in the best shape again, driving-wise, com🌳pared to even years before,” he said.

“I feel like I'm going to qualifying and nailing the laps 🗹and doingꦿ a good job.

“The races so far, we are executing everything thatඣ we can but when the base ℱpace is lacking there is not much that you can do.”

R🍰ed Bull team principal Christian Horner expects tyre degradation to play a key role in deciding the race at the resurfaced and grippier Shang💞hai circuit.

“I༺t's pretty tight at the front there and we tried a few th๊ings to hopefully help in the race tomorrow,” he said.

“Tenth and a half or so꧙ off pole, we were purple in the first sector but unfortunately we didn't have enough in the tyre at the end of the lap so yeah encouraging.

“It will be fascinating. These tyres are so sensitive, we ❀saw it in the sprint race earlierౠ, with different graining, and different cars working in different ways.

“So I don't think pole position is essential for this race, it's all going to be about strategy and it's all goiಞng to be about the front left tyre.”