Max Verstappen despondent as “bold” Red Bull gamble backfires

Red Bull have admitted to taking a “bold” set-up risk that ultimately backfired during a disastrous qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen suffered a shock elimination in the first part of qualifying and will start down in 16th for Sunday’s race at Interlagos in a blow to his fading title hopes.

To compound Red Bull’s misery, Yuki Tsunoda was the slowest driver in qualifying as he ended up 19th, with Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto unable to take part after his monster shunt in the sprint race.

Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies revealed his side took risks with their set-up that did not pay off.

"Obviously, nobody expected something like that," Mekies explained to Sky Sports F1.

"We have been unhappy with the car since pretty much when we got here, and you heard our struggles through the practice session and sprint but nonetheless, we were at the point where we could not fight for the win but we could fight with the group just after.

"And it's fair to say that we took some more risk before qualifying to try to see if we could put the car in a better place and it obviously went the opposite direction.

“So, that's where we are now. It's sometimes the price you pay when you take a risk, you cannot always go your way. It's painful but it's something we can learn from and improve.”

Mekies continued: "We did take some risks, we did change significantly the car because again that's the sort of risk you need to take if you want to give yourself a chance to put the car back in a window where it could fight for something bigger than where we were this morning.

"As we said it went the opposite direction so now we are where we are but no I would not say it was frightening, it's bold changes, we have been bold in our approach for a long time, that's the way we go racing and sometimes it hurts.”

Verstappen bemoans Red Bull woes

Four-time world champion Verstappen was left despondent by the result, and couldn’t explain his lap of grip or balance.

“It was just bad. I couldn’t push at all,” the Dutchman said. “The car was all over the place, sliding around a lot. I had to under-drive it a lot just to not have a moment. That of course doesn’t work in qualifying.

“We first have to analyse what is going on. I don’t really understand how it can be this bad, so that’s more important for us to understand at the moment.”