Max Verstappen issues Chinese Grand Prix ‘retirement’ plea

Max Verstappen has issued a damning verdict about his chances of victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, suggesting his competitors will need to 'retire' for him to win.

The Dutchman has bemoaned the pace of his RB21 throughout the season so far, despite his results not proving to be too bad early on in the championship fight.

In China, the 27-year-old managed a podium during the sprint race before qualifying a very handy fourth for the main race, having come within less than a second of winning last weekend's Australian GP behind Lando Norris.

However, Verstappen does not believe he will have enough at the Shanghai International Circuit to challenge the McLarens or the Mercedes cars in the main race, being asked by Sky Sports F1 after qualifying on Saturday how he will win the race. "If they all retire in front of me," Verstappen quipped.

"We are not fast enough.

"The lap was alright but it was very difficult to get a consistent balance out of it every lap, every corner basically. It was tough. But we are working on it and trying to do better.

"I feel comfortable, confident, but sometimes my input is not what I'm getting back from the car and that makes it quite difficult to nail every corner.

"Then in the race, when it's not doing that, you're degrading your tyres harder than cars around you and that's not ideal."

Verstappen scrambling to keep up

Following Norris' poor sprint race showing, Verstappen is just two points off the lead of the driver's championship in the very early forays of the campaign.

However, there is a feeling that the four-time champion is outdriving his Red Bull car and is scrambling to stay in touch at all with the likes of Norris, Piastri and George Russell.

That can be seen by the struggles his new team-mate Liam Lawson seems to be having, with the New Zealander putting his RB21 last out of all 20 drivers in both qualifying sessions in China, having also struggled during all of his runs in Melbourne.

Despite Red Bull's woes, Verstappen is still bullish about his capabilities: "I probably feel the best shape again driving-wise compared to even the years before," he continued in his interview in Shanghai.

"I feel I go into qualifyings, I'm nailing the laps and doing a good job, the races so far we have executed everything we can, but when the race pace is lacking there's not much you can do."

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