Red Bull's Max Verstappen says he has never experienced the dramatic balance swing he suffered in Monza qualifying that saw him go significantly slower in Q3.
Verstappen could only manage seventh in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, nearly seven-tenths behind McLaren's polesitter Lando Norris, as wild car balance swings made the three-time champion four-tenths slower than he was in Q2 despite using newer tyres.
The Dutchman and team-mate Sergio Perez, who qualified alongside him in eighth, have been struggling with balance problems on their RB20 since May's Miami round, but with rival teams catching up in the development race Red Bull now no longer has the pace in hand to cover them up.
"For whatever reason in Q3 I picked up a lot of understeer on both tyre sets and this is something that I don't understand at the moment," said Verstappen.
"It was just not drivable anymore. I couldn't attack any corner, so that's something that is very weird.
"I mean, going four-tenths slower than what you did in Q2 is not normal. The balance difference that I had in Q3 was very weird. Never experienced something like that before."
Red Bull had looked competitive as late as Q2, and its race pace on Friday also looked more promising and on par with its competitors, with the team known to usually run very conservative engine modes in Friday practice.
But Verstappen cautioned that his car's puzzling balance limitations are also set to impact tyre wear, which could limit his options to progress on Sunday.
When asked if he can still get in the hunt for victory, he replied: "Normally not. The whole weekend already we were too slow.
"The long runs might look good on paper but it didn't really feel like that personally. The problem is that when you don't have a balanced car, of course in the race that is also quite painful on tyres.
"So let's see. Maybe with how the car is at the moment it might be a little bit better for the race but we're also starting in the back of the top group.
"We'll just have to wait and see what happens in front of us. There are a few unknowns with the graining naturally as well. We'll find out tomorrow."
Perez felt that Red Bull's lack of a specific Monza rear wing also hurt the team "more than we thought".
"This connection in the balance that we're currently facing is the main issue," he said. "We can get some competitive laps at times, but it's very difficult to have any progression.
"I think not having a Monza wing as well has hurt us, probably more than we thought in the beginning."
Not only are the mid-corner balance shifts robbing Red Bull's drivers of confidence in the car, but the car displaying two different but interconnected traits in the same corner is an indication of why Red Bull appears to be struggling to find a solution.
Dialling out understeer or oversteer on its own is one thing, but when both occur in the same corner, trying to fix one part of the problem will likely just make the second part worse.
"You have two different balances; one from corner entry and one through the apex, so you cannot fix it," the Mexican explained. "You cannot go in one direction because you have both.
"I think we understand the issue. It's just how to fix it. Because at the moment we are pretty stuck and it's really hard to move forward from here."
