The race starts problem that is costing Max Verstappen…

Max Verstappen has endured an incredibly frustrating start to the 2026 Formula 1 campaign with the four-time world champion lingering eighth in the standings. The Red Bull driver started with sixth in the Melbourne opener, which was actually respectable considering he started 20th following a crash in Q1.

So it wasn’t all doom and gloom at the Austrian outfit a week ago, because it looked neck and neck with McLaren for third in the pecking order following a positive pre-season with its new in-house power unit. But then everything unravelled over the weekend at round two in China, where Red Bull was lacking overall pace.

“The whole day has been a disaster, pace-wise,” said Verstappen after qualifying eighth for the Shanghai sprint race, two spots above team-mate Isack Hadjar and 1.7s off polesitter George Russell. “Yeah, no grip. Honestly, I think that’s the biggest problem - no grip, no balance, just losing massive amounts of time in the corners.”

He went on to claim his first non-points finish in a sprint race since the format's introduction in 2021 and while it’s easy to say that the RB22 was just lacking overall performance, a closer look shows that there’s a real problem with Verstappen’s race starts.

The procedure under the new 2026 regulations is more complex thanks to the removal of the MGU-H, which means drivers must rev their engines much higher for at least 10 seconds to spool up the turbo. They must also make sure that they harvest enough energy on the formation lap to have good acceleration off the line, but this is something Verstappen has failed to do since Melbourne.

In Australia he endured a slow getaway, citing “no battery” as the cause, which was also present in the sister car: Hadjar enjoyed a lightning getaway from third, almost took the lead, before suddenly backing off due to a lack of battery and eventually retired.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing (Photo by: Marcel van Dorst / EYE4images / NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The problem wasn’t fixed in time for Shanghai, as the opening lap of the sprint saw the Dutchman drop all the way down into 15th from eighth, showing a significant weakness at Red Bull at the moment.

So when the poor sprint start was put to Verstappen afterwards, and what the cause behind it was, he responded: “Honestly I didn't even ask. They said they would fix it. So I hope that that will be fixed for tomorrow. Helps a bit to stay in position instead of starting the race from P20.”

Only it wasn’t: Verstappen qualified eighth for the grand prix, and in spite of the no-show from McLaren on the third row, he was down in 11th come lap two. That set the motion for what ended up being an incredibly disappointing race, as the 28-year-old retired from sixth on lap 46 thanks to a power unit failure.

“It was expected,” said Verstappen of the difficult day, though Hadjar grabbed points in eighth. “But again, the start of course was a big problem, the same as yesterday. The rest of the race was again the same as yesterday, just a lot of graining, can't push, terrible pace, terrible balance like yesterday. So, yeah, just a very bad weekend for us.”

When pressed further on a third, consecutive bad start, Verstappen said: “Here the two problems were the same. I just have no power. As soon as I release the clutch, the engine is not there.”

So now comes the question: is this a reality check of where Red Bull actually is, or was it down to China simply not suiting its car with track characteristics expected to make a greater difference in 2026?

When asked if the pace in Shanghai was normal, Verstappen said: “I hope not, but I don't know, it's impossible to say. I never saw myself even close to Mercedes or Ferrari. But this weekend has been particularly bad.”

Additional reporting by Stuart Codling and Oleg Karpov