Verstappen admits Chinese GP weekend poses ‘a lot of unknowns’ as he assesses whether Red Bull can challenge McLaren

Max Verstappen believes that there are “a lot of unknowns” at play entering into the Chinese Grand Prix weekend, with the Dutchman also giving his take on whether Red Bull can potentially take the fight to McLaren.

After a challenging start during Friday’s free practice sessions last time out in Melbourne, Verstappen was “surprised” to take third on the grid in Qualifying while he hailed his P2 result in Sunday’s race as a “decent starting point” for the team, the reigning World Champion crossing the line less than one second behind winner Lando Norris.

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A few days on, the paddock has arrived in Shanghai for what will be the first Sprint weekend of the season, just one factor that Verstappen has cited as adding to the uncertainty entering into the event.

“[There are] a lot of unknowns, I would say,” Verstappen explained during media day on Thursday. “Of course, this is quite a different layout and we have different, new tarmac here now.

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“It’s a Sprint weekend, so not a lot of time to adapt, so we will have to see how the car is going to respond to that. I hope that it will be in a good window and then we will try to do the best job we can.”

In terms of whether McLaren are beatable off the back of their strong performance in Melbourne, Verstappen commented: “I think it will be tough in general, because they are very fast, very competitive, very all-round. But at the end of the day, I don’t really think about that too much.

“I just want to focus on our own car. We just try to work from there, because that’s the only thing that we can control anyway. That’s what I prefer to focus on and hopefully, step by step, we can find some more performance.”

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Verstappen suggested that “a lot of different areas” have to come together in order for Red Bull to “unlock a little bit more pace”, with the 27-year-old further saying of the RB21’s characteristics: “I think in general, what we have seen so far, high-speed has not really been weak, so it is quite good.

“It is more the rest of it, where we are not all-round enough. That is what we have to work on. Here, there are not that many high-speed corners, but there are a lot of unknowns with the tarmac – it’s new. So it’s very hard to say where we will be.

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“I for sure know that we will not be the quickest because I think that is McLaren with how strong they are currently. But that’s fine. We just have to focus on ourselves and try to do the best we can.”