Red Bull CEO delivers firm verdict following lackluster qualifying result

Following a particularly difficult Friday, Red Bull aimed to make progress with the RB21 on Saturday. However, the Austrian team was unable to pinpoint the root cause of the balance issues, leading to another frustrating day.

Yuki Tsunoda came reasonably close to teammate Max Verstappen’s pace but was ultimately knocked out in Q1. Verstappen did make it into Q3, yet was never in contention for pole—eighth place was the best the Dutchman could manage this time.

"We have not had an ideal weekend so far and we have been struggling to get the car in the right window, including in Qualifying,'' Mekies stated after qualifying.

The team boss added that Red Bull currently has no solution for the problems, but fortunately, there are also positive things to take from the session: ''Have we really cracked it? No, but now we have plenty of data help us figure out what the issues are.''

Mekies underlined that Red Bull should seize such days as an opportunity: ''If we are to improve we must use days like this constructively, to ultimately be better. It’s uncomfortable but you can learn from these situations.''

''Yuki was knocked out of Q1 by only a couple of hundredths, and he was actually quite close to Max in both his runs, but we just didn’t have performance in the car,'' was Mekies conclusion.

While Tsunoda ran aground in Q1, Verstappen managed to make it to Q3. However, an eighth-place was the highest attainable: ''Max made it quite impressively through to Q3, despite our struggles and where he qualified is probably a true picture of where we are this weekend so far.''