Red Bull Racing opted to cancel the traditional post-GP press conference after a frustrating weekend for the team in Shanghai. The decision allowed team principal Laurent Mekies to return to England earlier.
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The team scored only four points, earned by Isack Hadjar, who finished eighth in the Formula 1 Chinese GP. Max Verstappen, for his part, did not score points in the Sprint race or the main GP. The Dutchman had to retire from the GP on lap 45, while in sixth position, due to a failure in the energy recovery system (ERS). The decision to retire from the race was made to protect the equipment from further damage.
Verstappen had problematic starts on both race days, dropping to 20th in the Sprint and 16th in the main race before recovering positions, helped by the fact that four drivers did not start, including McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
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In an official team statement, Mekies stated that it would be naive not to expect reliability issues with the new Red Bull Powertrains-Ford engine: “The Chinese GP proved to be a very difficult event for us since Friday. Being on the back foot at the start of a Sprint format weekend is the worst-case scenario, as there is little time to recover. We knew that just managing to get to the grid in Melbourne with our own power unit was already a great achievement, and it would be naive not to expect reliability issues,” said Mekies.
“Today, we had to retire Max’s car because of a cooling system defect. But this was not our only problem. In terms of performance, our package showed significant deficiencies. However, we have learned a lot in recent weeks and I hope we can be more competitive in the next round, in Japan, in fifteen days. After that, the cancellation of the races in April will give us time to breathe and continue working intensely in Milton Keynes. I have full confidence that we will overcome our current limitations thanks to everyone’s effort and improve our package quickly,” concluded the Red Bull Racing boss.
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