After coming within a second of victory in Melbourne, Max Verstappen had a disappointing Chinese Grand Prix, finishing 16 seconds off the winner in fourth place.
Red Bull were clearly less competitive around the freshly resurfaced Shanghai International Circuit. However, as Verstappen noted during the race, there were times he gave away more ground than he needed to, particularly in the first stint as he tried to protect the medium tyres which degraded so badly in the sprint race.
In fact, Verstappen incurred most of his eventual deficit to race winner Oscar Piastri during that time. On the hard rubber later in the race, as the track cooled, the RB21 was a match for the MCL39 at times.
Verstappen faced the added setback of having to get past the Ferraris, which passed him at the start of the race. Lewis Hamilton’s second pit stop took him out of the equation but Verstappen lost time passing Charles Leclerc.
Without that he could have been closer to George Russell in the final podium place and even Lando Norris when his brake problem struck. His radio messages reveal how the team realised he had more pace in the car as the race went on – in stark contrast to his struggling team mate.
Max Verstappen’s Chinese Grand Prix radio
Stint 1: Medium
Stint 2: Hard
Finish
Stint 1: Medium
Neither Red Bull driver was at all happy with their car’s balance on the medium compound. Verstappen lost most of his time to the leader at this stage and he clearly wasn’t happy with its balance on the front and rear axle.
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| Lap: 1/56 VER: 1’42.249 |
| Lambiase | No change to procedure, Max. |
| Lambiase | Last car, approach it back of the grid, Max. |
| Verstappen | Yeah Charles has a broken front wing. |
| Lambiase | Mode six, strat five, mode six, strat five. |
| Lap: 2/56 VER: 1’38.304 |
| Lambiase | DRS enabled. |
| Lambiase | 0.8 ahead, 0.8 behind, display eight. |
| Lap: 3/56 VER: 1’38.302 |
| Lambiase | Think about turn one with DRS. |
| Lambiase | 0.9 ahead, 0.9 behind. Gap behind, 1.1 |
| Lap: 5/56 VER: 1’38.895 |
| Lambiase | Cars ahead, less management, seven-eight, just information. Also turn one. |
| Lap: 9/56 VER: 1’39.229 |
| Lambiase | Can I have an update please? |
| Verstappen | Well, no matter how slow I drive, I keep sliding on the rubber. There’s no entry and exit stability on the rear. Yeah, makes it very difficult. |
| Lambiase | So, front flap for the next set then please Max. |
| Verstappen | We’ve got a little bit. Ah, the upshifts are very bad. |
| Lap: 10/56 VER: 1’39.064 |
| Lambiase | So, diff nine, mid nine, keep tracking it Max, that’s the issue. Or diff 10. |
| Lap: 12/56 VER: 1’38.627 |
| Lambiase | So Max reduce management for the moment, please, reduce any management. |
| Lap: 13/56 VER: 1’42.610 |
| Lambiase | Everything you’ve got, please, Max. |
| Verstappen | Sorry repeat? |
| Lambiase | Everything you’ve got. |
| Lambiase | Box and pit confirm Max. Box, pit confirm. |
| Lambiase | Strat 12 in pit lane. |
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Stint 2: Hard
No team had run the hard tyre prior to Sunday’s race. However Red Bull was one of the three teams which started one of their cars on the harder rubber.
That meant Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase could pass on the team’s direct observations about the rubber’s performance. As the stint unfolded they became more optimistic about the tyre’s performance, and most drivers on the same strategy soon concluded they could finish the race without making another pit stop.
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| Lap: 14/56 VER: 1’55.252 |
| Lambiase | White line on the exit, racing Tsunoda and Antonelli. White line on the exit. |
| Lambiase | Okay, you’re clear. |
| Verstappen | I gave a lot of lap time away in that first stint. |
| Lambiase | Yes, we saw that, Max. |
| Verstappen | How is the hard tyre holding up? |
| Lap: 15/56 VER: 1’37.322 |
| Lambiase | Pretty good on the front. |
| Lambiase | Still no issues on Liam’s tyre to this point. |
| Verstappen | It’s a normal kind of management? |
| Lambiase | Yes, please. Let’s not over-protect. |
| Lambiase | So Leclerc in pit lane, he’ll come out ahead of you. |
| Lap: 17/56 VER: 1’37.369 |
| Lambiase | Reminder, turn one on DRS. |
| Lap: 18/56 VER: 1’37.847 |
| Verstappen | I have a bit of front locking in the last corner, I don’t know how to solve that. |
| Lambiase | Stand by. Confirm turn 16? |
| Verstappen | Yeah. I went to minus one B-bal five. |
| Lambiase | Gap 0.6. No further changes for turn 16. |
| Lambiase | 0.6. |
| Lambiase | All cars ahead, same pace, Max, other than Leclerc. Leclerc 37.1. |
| Lap: 22/56 VER: 1’37.543 |
| Lambiase | Piastri 37.7. |
| Lap: 23/56 VER: 1’37.442 |
| Lambiase | Engine 13. Engine one-three position 10. Position one zero. Leclerc not saving, turn one. Leader’s pace 37.3. |
| Lap: 24/56 VER: 1’37.250 |
| Lambiase | Generally starting to reduce levels of management, Max. |
| Lambiase | 36.9 ahead. |
| Lambiase | Strat nine, please, strat nine. |
| Lap: 28/56 VER: 1’37.318 |
| Lambiase | We’d like to assess torque six at mid five, please. Torque six, mid five. |
| Lambiase | Thank you. |
| Lambiase | Hamilton, 37.5 ahead. |
| Lap: 31/56 VER: 1’37.084 |
| Lambiase | Max, front flap for the next stint please. |
| Lap: 33/56 VER: 1’37.100 |
| Speaker 2 | Yeah, that’s okay. I think that’s okay, yeah. |
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By the second half of the race the track conditions had changed significantly. The cloud cover which began to form as the race started had continued to gather and the shade and brought the asphalt temperature down by almost 10C.
Most drivers increased their pace at this point, but Verstappen’s Red Bull especially seemed to like the conditions. His quickest lap was just three-hundredths of a second off the best time of the race, set by Norris.
He was quick enough to close within DRS range of Leclerc and pull off a well-worked pass on the Ferrari through the opening corners which earned a few words of praise from Lambiase.
| Lap: 36/56 VER: 1’36.646 |
| Lambiase | Good pace now Max, better late than never. 20 laps remaining, come on. |
| Lambiase | Leclerc 36.9. It’s good pace, Max, keep it up. |
| Lap: 39/56 VER: 1’36.457 |
| Lambiase | So Leclerc 36.7. |
| Lap: 40/56 VER: 1’36.440 |
| Lambiase | Max, can we just introduce a very small amount of lift-off into 14 and six please? This is top pace now Max, keep going. |
| Lap: 41/56 VER: 1’36.137 |
| Lambiase | Keep it up, Max, obviously everybody’s trying to hang it out now, don’t know what can happen at the end. |
| Lap: 43/56 VER: 1’36.242 |
| Lambiase | Max, for a Safety Car restart, medium or hard? |
| Verstappen | I guess the hard is more robust. |
| Lambiase | Understood. |
| Verstappen | How many laps are left? |
| Lap: 44/56 VER: 1’36.221 |
| Lambiase | 13, including this one. |
| Lambiase | Fastest car in the top five at the moment. |
| Lap: 45/56 VER: 1’36.182 |
| Lambiase | Max, just keep up that small amount of lift-off into six and 14. |
| Lambiase | Tyre temps are healthy, so no concern there. |
| Lambiase | Display three position nine if downshifts are an issue or becoming an issue, Max. |
| Lap: 46/56 VER: 1’36.188 |
| Lambiase | Blue flags ahead. |
| Lambiase | Leclerc 36.5. |
| Lap: 48/56 VER: 1’36.023 |
| Lambiase | Gap down to two seconds, Max. |
| Lap: 49/56 VER: 1’35.898 |
| Lambiase | Six laps remaining. |
| Lap: 51/56 VER: 1’35.710 |
| Lambiase | 0.9. Just reminder turn one, Max. |
| Lambiase | 0.4.
Verstappen passes Leclerc at turn three |
| Lap: 53/56 VER: 1’36.175 |
| Lambiase | Clear to use DRS, have a strong braking point into turn 11. |
| Lambiase | Does not have DRS, Max. Lovely stuff. |
| Lambiase | Three laps remaining. |
| Lambiase | Two laps remaining, Max, keep pushing to the end. Possible brake issue on Norris’s car. |
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Finish
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner joined in the post-race discussions on Verstappen’s radio. He did not do the same after Lawson took the chequered flag in 16th.
There were times last year when Verstappen’s dissatisfaction with his car’s performance provoked a string of angry messages throughout the race. That wasn’t the case in Shanghai, and he even sounded optimistic about their performance as he prepared to climb out of his car.
| Lap: 54/56 VER: 1’35.780 |
| Lambiase | Okay, final lap. |
| Lap: 56/56 VER: 1’35.488 |
| Lambiase | Good job Max. We will, yeah, lots to learn there. We’ll look at that. But you drove very, very well. Well done. |
| Verstappen | Yeah, I think the end was not too bad, the beginning was quite tough. But that was good. Bit of fun racing too at the end. |
| Chequered flag |
| Horner | Yeah, well done mate. Important points today, they all add up at the end of the year. Your pace on the hard tyre, particularly the second half of the stint, was every bit as good as the cars ahead, so plenty of lessons to take out of this. |
| Verstappen | Yeah, yeah, for sure. Let’s analyse everything. I think those last few laps were a lot more competitive, that’s for sure. |
| Lambiase | And some pick-up on the way in as well, please, Max, where you can. |
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